


The Game

by alexithe_choji, kidwrite



Category: N/A - Fandom
Genre: Fantasy, Gen, RPG, Some Mythological Influence, Some Sci-fi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-15 08:58:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 23
Words: 31,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15409506
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alexithe_choji/pseuds/alexithe_choji, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kidwrite/pseuds/kidwrite
Summary: So the first chapter is a Prologue which explains the whole dealio. Basically though, you woke up one day, saw your name displayed above your head and realized the world has become like an RPG video game with different classes and everything. Just read the prologue if you want a more in depth description.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to comment! Anything from constructive criticism, to just comments on the story, suggestions be them on my writing style or even things you'd like to see in the story. Oh! And let me know what you would do if you were in this world and which class would you pick if any.

7 years ago, the world changed forever. When people woke up, they saw the names of others displayed above their heads. Most people simply ignored it and kept going with their lives. Some were curious and began investigating, they started testing the human eye to see why it changed and displayed such things, idiots the lot of them. The gamers realized what was happening, they began to draft the rules of this new game world.

1) No Respawn- Death is permanent, that fact remains the same between our previous world and this one. The only exception to this is if you have a healer in your party, if he revives you within the first 3 days of your death you can be brought back.

2) Body will only be wounded by status effects- after much combat testing and several different iterations of this rule we found out that you can't get cut or crippled unless there's a status effect that would allow it.

3) Classes- There are 5 classes in the game with different pros and cons even if played as effectively as possible. There's the Brawler, Sorcerer, Guardian, Thief and Cleric. You can only choose one class and you must stick with it. There are special exceptions. Every 10 levels you must complete a quest to rank up. Each time you rank up you can get a passive bonus.

4) Safe Zones- Certain very crowded places like town squares, schools, offices, subways, among other ones are safe zones. One cannot take damage there and can organize their inventory or skills.

5) Menu: if you think about the menu you can open a display.

6) Skill System: There are certain skills one can acquire through leveling up and the place where you do this is known as the skill tree.

7) Leveling Stats: There are 6 stats in the game that you can level: strength, dexterity, vitality, endurance, intelligence and wisdom. These stats affect your body, example if you raise your strength and dex your body would change to a more agile and physcially toned one.

8) Specialization: In the skill trees there are instances where you must choose one of two routes and must stick with that route. These are called Class Specializations.

9) Special Classes: There are some cases where Classes can mix, these are very rare and turn out to be quite powerful. One such example is the Knight. A mix between a Brawler and a Guardian.

10) Skills: Each Class has different ways to assort their skills but all of them can only have 5 skills that they can use at any given time.

Addtionally, NPCs (Non Playable Characters) appeared, you can tell they're NPCs cause their names appear yellow, unlike humans that have white names. There are also new areas in the world. There is a building that towers above all else where mages learn the intricacies of magic. A colosseum where warriors prove their might through combat. A house of prayer where many devoted followers gather, pray and witness the miracles of God. An underground Thieves Guild where assassins, thieves and petty criminals alike meet and hone their art. Finally, a temple, long forgotten where a few gentle monks learn how to hone their bodies and mind to resist any pain, physical or psychological, so that they may bear that weight for the sake of others, a most gentle practice indeed.

There is just one more curiosity about this new world of ours. The general public calls them Champions. These are a small group of people who are able to mix classes and create a new one that is more powerful than both of them on their own. This does not mean they are unbeatable, but even without being particularly good at the game, they have an edge in battle. The reason as to why or how they mix classes is unknown. They themselves don't know why, they simply could from the very beginning.

This game world has caused many radical changes to the population as well. Criminals became more like super villains with powers, nerds turned the tables on the jocks that abused them. Some went mad, believing that this was merely a dream and that their actions had no consequences. Others ignored the game and went on with their miserable lives. Some used the game to earn money, killing mobs, selling the materials to NPCs  becoming rich that way. The world had changed forever, but to me, it was the chance of a lifetime.

 


	2. Ethan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And so this dumpster fire of a story begins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kidwrite is listed as a co-creator not because they help me type it out or anything, which may lead to awful grammar since I don't read what I type, but they have greatly influenced how I write and such so, props to them! I'll be posting some original art by friends who illustrate this story for me on my tumblr and leave a link to it here in the notes. Toodles!

So, it's been 7 years since the game started. I honestly never bothered with joining it. I didn't think much of it. One day however, I found this article that described how some geeks from a different college killed everyone in the sports team with their supernatural powers. One was described to be shooting balls of fire from his hands, another had learned martial arts from in less than a few days and every strike he landed was stronger than the one preceding it. It would be dishonest to say I wasn't interested. How does someone turn the tables on their bullies so quickly? Supernatural Powers? That's interesting, imagine what someone like me could do with something like that. I could be the benevolent ruler this world deserves, no more would these sheep treat me as less than them. They would learn their place. Ethan Rivers wasn't just a geeky kid from college, Ethan Rivers wasn't some kid you could bully into doing your homework for you. They would regret ever crossing Ethan Rivers.

I skipped a day of college and went searching for the Sorcerer NPCs that give out quests. I couldn't find any for some reason so I resigned myself to join the Brawler class. I saw this NPC,  a male. He had the stereotypical street fighting character look, red bandana, ragged clothing, piercing gaze, the usual. I walked up to him and decided to interact, that initiated his dialogue.

He pointed at me as he yelled, "You there! Have you ever wanted to beat someone into submission with nothing but the power of your fists? Is there someone you wish to get revenge on? Someone you want to avenge?"

A system message window came up saying that if I answered yes to his question I would join the brawler class and not be able to choose another one. I mentally tapped the window away. The windows have been found to be visible only to the player opening them, almost like a hallucination they can interact with by using their mind. These windows include the main menu, system announcements, other menus, subtitles and so on.

I returned my focus to the NPC in front of me and nodded. "Yes. I want to revenge on those who have wronged me."

The NPC smiled, "Great! Then let me teach you the first skill of the brawler class. Activate this skill by attempting to throw a punch, but you will step in harsher and put all your weight into this blow! This creates the Heavy Strike!"

I unlocked the class and it's first skill, heavy strike. Honestly though, there's no point in unlocking just the first ten levels. I'm going to enter the class upgrade dungeon and just level up as I go through it.

I traveled to a part of a town where a great pillar stood. There was a small sigil containing a gloved fist carved into the ground in front of the pillar. I initiated the quest and received a sort of system warning where I was told of the risks of initiating a class quest without being level 10 and the risks of doing it alone. I simply ignored these and walked in the direction of the dungeon. I entered the dungeon which had 10 levels downward and hoped for the best. Now let me be frank, doing a class upgrade quest alone, while being level 1 and without any sort of equipment or armor was not my greatest idea.

I was welcomed by many foot soldiers wielding swords and shields. The good thing is these foot soldiers were not very good at using said sword and shield, their attacks were telegraphed and everytime they swung their swords they would leave themselves open for quite a bit of time. Also they tried to fight me one on one so it allowed for an easier fight. The downside was, I realized too late, that with 1 swing they would knock down about a third of my health. So now I was 2 hits away from being killed. I made sure to be constantly backing away slowly and waiting for them to swing so I could strike. To be honest my chances weren't too good. I would have to hit one soldier 10 times to kill him, there were 15 soldiers and any of them needed to hit me a mere 2 times to erase me.

I had taken my time and hit my opponent 9 times. One more hit and I'd have 1 less soldier to deal with. I backstepped and waited for my opponent to swing his sword and then hit him one last time. As soon as he died my level went up from 1 to 4. I was a bit confused, but then remembered this was a dungeon meant for level 10 players.

I kept moving backwards as a system announcement asked me to distribute my points. I guess you get 2 stat points for every level, I put 3 points into my strength stat and 3 into my vitality to increase my damage output and health bar respectively. Also, when you level up, your health comes back to full, which is super overpowered but it works in my benefit. Next, a skill tree popped up which let me choose 3 skills from it. I kept looking back at the soldiers to make sure I wasn't caught off guard. I chose the berserker rage skill, the simple combo skill and the stance skill. I equipped all of these quickly and skimmed their descriptions. "Okay I got this now!" I thought to myself.

I closed all of these displays, and activated my simple combo skill, which guarantees a 4 hit combo as long as I land a heavy strike. The heavy strike makes me deal 20% more damage, but it is a much slower punch. I activated my berserker rage skill which boosts my damage by 2% for each hit I take. I then activated my stance skill which makes it so that after I activate a skill, enemies cannot hit me out of it. They can damage me, but not interrupt my skill. All of these together make it so that I always land a simple combo and in the case that I get hit it boosts my damage.

So I'm dealing 14 damage by myself, the opponent has 100 health. The heavy strike boosts my damage to 16.8 damage, stance makes it so that I can't get hit out of my heavy strike and if I do get hit my damage gets boosted by an additional 2% which boost my damage to 17 damage. I then land one hit which deals 14.28 additional damage my second hit deals the same and the final hit is also a heavy strike which deals 17 damage. That means if I get hit once while I land this whole combo I deal nearly 63 damage. The downside is I need to wait at least 20 seconds for my combo to cooldown. Even still, my odds are way better now.

It took me 10 whole minutes of my precious time to clear the first floor! At least I got to level 7. I raise my STR (strength) by 4 and my DEX (dexterity) by 2. I also unlocked Spiritual Energy skill which boosts all attacks and the Bloodlust buff which I have equipped. This skill makes it so that every hit I land will increase my damage by 2%. I had to unequip my berserker rage for this since I can only have 1 buff equipped. Finally, I unlocked the advanced combo skill which increases the amount of hits from 4 hits to 5 hits.

The combo is initiated by a heavy strike and the last two strikes are also heavy strikes. My normal attack now deals 22 damage. My heavy strikes deal 4.4 more damage for a total of 26.4 damage. My first hit once the heavy strikes land will deal 22.44 damage my second hit will deal closer to 23 damage. The third hit which is also a heavy strike will deal 28 damage, roughly. My last hit will deal 34 ish damage, meaning my full combo will deal, approximately, 134 damage. So yeah, this dungeon should not be that difficult anymore. Hopefully. If the Lord has mercy.

Now that the soldiers were all dead, I could actually take the time to describe my surroundings. The room was very circular with a ceiling so tall I couldn't really see it. It was dimly lit by some unseen light source, because why would we want to incorporate accurate physics in game design? At one edge of the room there was a glowing circular platform with smaller circles inside, reminiscent of a ripple on water. When I approached it, a system announcement came up and asked me if I was ready to proceed onto the next floor. I mentally pressed yes and I was teleported elsewhere.

 


	3. Loot System.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So the story behind this one is that I got my character stuck in a situation that where even I, the almighty writer, could not write him out of it with the known knowledge of my world. So I said, "F it," added something new to the story and there we go. Boom. Sorted. I hope you enjoy my hilarious attempt at writing myself out of a difficult situation.

Well, the second floor wasn't any harder but it certainly did not get easier! This floor had shield wielding spearmen, that were better trained and barely left any openings for me to attack. I found myself having to prance around like a little german girl until I was finally able to get behind one of them and combo them into oblivion. That was another hour and a half wasted. I was already feeling exhausted but I refused to go back.

I reached level 9. Raised my END (endurance) by 3 and my STR by 1. I then reached a branch of the skill tree where I had to choose one path or the other. One route allowed me to extend my combo to 8 strikes with the first and last being heavy strikes. This new combo combined with my bloodlust buff would make it so that my attacks would deal an incredible amount of damage.  The combo was called fast strikes, it's only downside was that there is a chance my opponent can escape the combo after the first four strikes and I'd be left defenseless for a bit if they do.

Additionally, I decided to invest more into the martial arts route and chose to go down the Tae Kwon Do route in the Eastern Martial Arts Branch. The first skill was the roundhouse kick, the knowledge needed to be able to perform this kick immediately flooded my mind. It seems that Martial Arts are passive abilities, they don't require activation they are just there and you can use them. The fact that I could learn even complex or difficult Martial Arts moves in a less than a second by activating a node on a skill tree was absolutely fascinating.

I took my time, moving around the spearmen and attacking only when I was able to get behind them and I knew I could get a few hits in. It took me another hour, but I eventually did manage to clear the second floor. I stood on the circular platform at the end of the room and proceeded onto the next floor.

The third floor had more swordsmen. These were better trained, their attacks weren't telegraphed - forcing me to react on reflexes alone - their swings did not leave them open and if I backstepped the wrong way their thrusts would find their way into my stomach. I was hit quite a few times and calculated that I could survive no more than 7 attacks. I had to get used to dodging close to them instead of backing away, if not I would waste an even greater amount of time.

I tried baiting out a thrust and as soon as my opponent thrusted at me I reached for his sword arm and pushed him while holding the sword causing him to stumble and let go of it. After successfully disarming my foe I activated bloodlust and landed a fast combo. To finish him off, I hit him with a fast roundhouse kick.

These foes then decided to not grant me one on one fights, instead they surrounded me and started thrusting at me almost simultaneously. I got hit by almost all of those thrusts and my health was erased. 3 more hits and I would die, I was having fladhbacks to the first floor now.

I managed to escape the circle of death by jumping on one of the soldiers causing him to fall down. I took his sword from him and ran away to put some safety distance between me and my attackers. As I ran, I unscrewed the pommel of the sword I was using and threw it at them. One of the soldiers was distracted by this and I managed to stab him through the chest and cut him.

As I killed him I leveled up to 10, my health was refilled and I immediately put my stat points into vitality. There was a new system announcement:

"Special Skill unlocked! Pommel throw: It allows you to throw the pommel of your sword to distract your enemy. While he is distracted, you may attack him and end him rightly!

...

I have no words to describe how I feel about this. I went from being terrified and close to death, to overjoyed as I was saved and now, now I just felt as if this game world mocked me for my desperate attempt at surviving.

Regardless then I put my skill point into the hooking kick from the Tae Kwon Do skill tree. The part that interested me about this kick was that if performed at close range I can hook my leg around my opponent's head or arms. If performed at mid range you smack the opponent with your heel.

I was a new man, my health refilled and my stamina seemingly recovered, I parried my opponent's sword attacks with the sword I borrowed and then I swiped at the opponent's head. 

Their skill with the sword was far greater than mine, they were far faster and precise. I had managed to open their guards a bit though, which is what I wanted. When I saw that small window of opportunity, I attempted to capitalize on it and activate my Fast Strikes Combo. I hadn't activated stance and halfway into my attack motion, I saw something round and wooden moving closer and closer to my face until it hit me (literally). I fell backwards onto my butt and soon realized that my opponent had pulled out a shield from God knows where. The soldiers around him followed suit and also equipped shields.

Okay this was going to be way more difficult than I originally thought. New strategy: Lure them out one at a time throw the sword at them and see if it miraculously kills them. If not use the opportunity to move behind them and combo attack. Rinse. Repeat. Victory. My health bar was at the 90% mark as I moved on to the next floor.

Finally, no bladed objects. I could see men dressed in a not too dissimilar attire to the one that the NPC I spoke to had been wearing and they bowed before letting me in. There was a stage in the center of the room, 15 men surrounding it and granting me passage onto it. I got into the ring and prepared for the worst, but when I saw only one of them enter the stage I felt relieved. He bowed before me and I did the same to follow proper etiquette.

He stood in a weird stance, seemed to be some form of Shaolin Kung Fu. He slowly got close to me, then he lunged and threw a punch at me, I dodged and quickly retaliated with a lead roundhouse kick, which he gracrfully dodged. I stepped back and attempted to bat him into an attack as I threw out a normal roundhouse kick. He blocked and pushed my leg back down as he landed 3 clean strikes, 1 to my face and two to my body. I moved away, activated stance and waited for him to close in. When he did I threw out a heavy strike, he attempted to interrupt me by punching me in the face, but my stance boosted my poise and allowed me to power through his attack. After landing a full combo his health was chopped in 2. I had to fight 14 other guys this strong?

I closed in quickly and threw out punches, testing his reflexes. He began by dodging them with ease. I threw them out with a bit more spead he began lightly pushing them away from his body as he dodged. One more increase in speed and he found himself standing still and blocking them. After this I moved back a bit to regain a bit of my stamina and he kept his guard raised. I could tell he was waiting for me to make a move so I closed the distance between us with a quick hop and performed the hooking kick. He was able to block the kick with his forearm and avoid the impact but he didn't foresee my leg hooking his head and pulling him to the ground. Once downed I unloaded with a another combo. I was surprised to see he stood up again and I desperately threw punches, hoping one of these would be lucky enough to finish him off. I threw out another hooking kick, he backed away expecting I was going to hook my leg around his head again. Instead, I followed through with it and hit him square in the jaw with the heel of my foot. He fell down and with that he died and his body slowly faded away. I was about to laugh triumphantly, but then I remembered I had 14 other guys to deal with and also 6 other floors.

Health condition: very low  
Stamina: exhausted.  
Motivation: Gone.  
Will to live: What is that?

I was frustrated and yelled out more for my own sake rather than as a legitimate question. "Doesn't this game have a looting system!? Aren't dungeons good for leveling AND items!?"

As if on cue a system announcement came up: "When an enemy is defeated, you recieve a certain amount of money and certain drops. To see the items you have recieved, think of opening an item inventory".

I did as I was told and saw the menu appear before me. It had a list of the items I gained with a picture of said items and the amount I have of it in my inventory. I then saw that I had health and stamina potions that I had gained from the enemies before. There was also some armor, swords, spears and shields. Now this, this was a game changer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, this chapter was not my best, regardless there is something I want to point out. The combat presented in this story is nothing like real life combat. Some segments will show some real, historically accurate combat and those will be over very quickly just like real duels were in real life.
> 
> Secondly, for those of you who don't know, the pommel throw skill is a joke. This joke started when a youtuber who talks about Historical European Martial Arts named Skallagrim found a combat guidebook where this skill was mentioned, or at least that's where I first saw it. Ever since that moment, it has become a sort of meme or running gag of the community.
> 
> Oh! And here is a pic of the heel/hooking kick drawn by a dear friend of mine. https://alexithechoji.tumblr.com/post/176230397545/this-is-a-picture-drawn-by-a-wonderful-friend-of


	4. Special Skills

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens here. Same story as last time. Still couldn't dig myself out of this self made grave so I added something. Cool? Cool!

I quickly drank the health and stamina potion. My body felt light again, I felt like I could run a mile! My health bar was also full now! I quickly equipped some armor. The way armor works in this game is that it add resistance which takes down a small percent of the damage you take. The better the armor the more damage it reduces. Some armor reduces static values regardless of the attack, though these are a bit more rare. Also some equipment will grant you stat increases or other unspecified bonuses. Suits of armor are more proficient at reducing certain types of damage, an example is how metal armor reduces slashing damage, but it's barely reduces magic and lightning damage.

The armor I'm wearing reduces slashing damage by 20% and bludgeoning damage by 10%. I also found a ring that raises my health bar by 10 points. Now that I had expanded my upon my protections, I was feeling a bit more confident.

Before I bowed and initiated combat again, I wanted to try something different. "Crafting Menu." I spoke into the air.

...

Nothing at first. Suddenly, "System Announcement! The crafting menu is available for use now!" I mentally tapped the window away and initiated combat with this other martial artist. I bowed and readied myself with stance.

His style was different from the other Martial Artist's. He placed himself in a more defensive stance and I slowly moved forward. I threw out a punch as quickly as I could and he blocked it, shoved it aside and delivered several fast and precise strikes to my body. I counted 7 hits in less than 2 seconds. I backed away and just barely blocked an incoming kick to my head. As soon as I felt his leg hit my arm, I quickly grabbed his leg. Then, I moved towards him to alter his center of balance and then kicked his other leg.

As he fell I curb stomped his head several times until he was defeated. Contrary to before, when he died I saw two messages that read the items, crafting materials and amount of money gained from defeating him.

I glanced at my health and was glad to see that I had a bit under 80% of my health bar. Okay, the armor and ring are working, that's good. I waited for the next enemy to stand, but this time 2 of them rose to the challenge. "Yeah, no I'm not dealing with this BS," I thought to myself as I opened the inventory and pulled out a sword and shield.

They both rushed in to attack me, but they couldn't do much with my shield and blade in the way. If they tried to attack me I would just block with my shield and then quickly stab at them. Whenever they'd make the mistake of attacking just my shield instead of trying to harm me, I would bash them with it and slash at them. Two repetitions of this for each and they were down.

Next round, 5 of them stood up. Okay this is totally not fair! I put away the sword and shield into my inventory and I resumed my stance skill. I switched out my bloodlust buff for berserker rage, since I could tell I was going to take lots of damage this time around. I immediately threw out my heavy strike skill onto the nearest martial artist, while I landed the combo I was hit several times by the enemies beside me, which only boosted my power.

Because of the strikes I recieved I dealt enough damage to kill the opponent outright. I then went for the roundhouse kick and missed, put my foot down and immediately went for a hooking kick, knocking down 2 of the martial artist. I stalled for time, circling around the men on the floor until they began to stand up, since they were relatively defenseless I landed my heavy strike followed by the combo and killed another one of them.

I repeated this process of knocking down and killing them outright as they stood back up. Once this was finished, the last 6 guys stood up simultaneously. I gave up on biding for time and repeating this stupid process. I re-equipped bloodlust, rushed one of them and hit him twice in the face, hook kicked him on the head and followed up with a heavy strike combo. That was one down.

Two of them rushed me afterwards. I equipped my sword and quickly thrusted it at one of them, he pushed it aside and hit me square in the face. I grabbed his head and attempted to knee him in the face. He blocked my knee with his arms, however he forgot about the sword I was wielding. I switched my grip to the ice pick grip and stabbed him. 

Although I managed to kill him, I recieved a tough kick to the head and several body blows that left me wobbly as I fell backwards. My health was now lower than 25%. I stood up and utilized the heavy strike skill once more. I punched the air and was kicked several times again. I was hit from both sides on my head almost simultaneously as I fell forward. I essentially ran away as I drank a health and stamina potion. My health was brought back up to full and I quickly turned and roundhouse kicked one of the 4 remaining enemies. I had landed so many hits that my damage knocked down a third of his health.

The kick managed to make him fall and I curb stomped him twice to finish him off. After that, one of the opponents approached me. I threw out my heavy strike when suddenly, the world spun and I was staring at the ceiling. Next thing I knew a foot was coming down on my face. I rolled out of the way and stood up quickly.

Okay luring them out is no good and neither is rushing them. Let me try something new. I waited for my opponent to throw a punch. When my opponent punched with his left arm I dodged to his right moving towards the outside of his body and with his fist next to me. I then grabbed his fist and tried pulling it towards me as I hit his elbow with a palm strike. I forced his elbow to bend the wrong way and broke his arm. He backed away in pain and yelled harshly.

"Special Skill Unlocked! Arm Break: Hit the elbow of your opponent, bend it the wrong way and break it. This skill will allow you to cripple players."

Okay, let's try something else. I quickly hopped closer to the injured opponent and harshly kicked his knee in. His leg broke under him and he yelled even louder.

"Special Skill Unlocked: Leg Breaker: Force your enemy's knee to bend inwards and break his leg. This skill allows you to cripple players."

I sighed happily, "Science and Anatomy, you never fail me, do you? It was about time things went my way."

The 2 remaining enemies winced and backed away a bit, having seen how their ally was mutilated before death. They approached me one at a time, two leg breaks later I had finally finished this annoying floor. I was kind of anxious as to what the rest of the dungeon would be like. After all, this was still just the 4th floor. If I plan on making it out of here I should unlock more special skills. They ibcrease my versatility and I found out that they don't need to be activated. Once learned, you can use them at will.

I once more walked over to the now familiar glowing circle and ventured further into the dungeon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is a link to another drawing! https://alexithechoji.tumblr.com/post/176244407465/this-is-a-drawing-of-the-leg-break-technique-drawn


	5. Final Floor

The fifth floor, it was just like all the previous rooms except of course for the enemy on this level. There was a single man standing on this floor, he had a rapier on his right hand and a dagger in his left, he wore a suit of metal plated armor with a blue cape. He slowly walked towards me as I equipped my spear. He picked up the speed and I attempted to thrust the spear into him, he parried it away with his dagger and attempted to stab me with the rapier. I tried moving out of the way, but his blade still found its way to my body. Luckily, my armor reduces slashing and piercing damage quite well.

I backed away and equipped my sword and shield, "Okay. New plan!"

I walked slowly towards him making sure to cover my body well with my shield. It was a medium sized shield that, when my arm was extended, would cover most of my body.  I got close and as soon as I saw the opponent make a move, I extended my arm, and his dagger clashed against my shield. I twisted my hand a bit and push his dagger aside while slightly opening my guard allowing me to thrust the sword into the opponen. Hee too was wearing armor, so he barely lost any health.

I got rid of the shield and held only my sword in my right hand. "God I hope this works." I knew his attack would not deal too much damage, so I flipped my sword around and grabbed it by it's edge as carefully yet tightly as I could. As he stabbed me with his rapier I brought my sword down and smashed his helmet in with the guard. He fell on the ground with a groan and stopped moving though still alive. "Huh, better than I thought."

"Special Skill Unlocked! Half Swording: grab your sword by the blade and attack your opponent with the guard or pommel to deal bludgeoning damage."

The Knight groaned as he slowly tried to stand back up, but I smashed his head in once more with the guard of my sword.

I spat on his body as it slowly faded away. "Get wrecked. Noob." I smiled at my own victory, exited the floor and ventured to the next.

The sixth floor was infested by giant spiders. They were all the size of a small dog like a chihuahua. This is such a video game cliché and I hate these wretched creatures. I don't even want to describe what happened. Summary: I wielded a spear to make sure I did not have to come within 3 feet of those horrifying creatures and stabbed them from afar. That said, let's move on to the next floor.

Pyromancers ruled the seventh floor. They wore black robes that covered most of their bodies, their eyes barely visible, their mouths and hands left uncovered by their robes. As soon as I got here they started throwing fireballs and breathing fire at me. I equipped my bloodlust buff once more, I was gonna test a few things.

I dodged the fireballs and streams of their fire breath as best as I could. When I got to the pyromancer, I landed several strikes targeting the chin. I did not kill him outright, but he walked groggily before fell down.

"Special Skill Unlocked! Concussion Blow: Strike your opponent's chin harshly to make them groggy and make them fall. Applies status effect confusion and knock down to players."

I stepped away from the pryomancer's fading body and looked for my next victim. "Alright, my little guinea pig, you're gonna help me test out the double roundhouse kick."

From the knowledge I gained about roundhouse kicks when I unlocked the skill, I learned that roundhouse kicks can be chained together. I got behind the flame sorcerer and chained together two roundhouse kicks, he stumbled to the side opposite of where the second kick came from. He tried to correct his balance and put his feet under him, but he tripped over himself and fell.

"Special Skill Unlocked! Double Roundhouse Kick: Chain two Roundhouse Kicks together to deal massive damage to the head. Can cause confusion and will knock down players."

I then made quick work of the remaining pyromancers. They had very low health and as long as you paid attention to the trajectory of their fireballs it was easy to avoid damage. The matter ended and so I powered on, through the dungeon.

On the eighth floor I was welcomed by some guy with a Quarterstaff. He wore an orange robe reminiscent of what Shaolin Monks wore, his head was shaved cleanly and 6 dots were placed on it in the same fashion as a monk's.

I sighed frustrated as I approached him, "More martial artists? really? You know what? NO. I am done with this crap." I then equipped my sword and shield. He raised the staff and brought it down aiming for my head. I blocked it with my shield, pushed it aside and stabbed him through the gut in one fluid motion. His robes where then stained by blood and he groaned before collapsing and dying. I stepped over his body as I walked towards the other side of the room, "I'm not wasting anymore time being 'honorable' on any of these NPCs." I walked onto the circular platform once more and was teleported to another room.

There ninth floor was just like any other room, but there was a boxing ring in the middle of said room.

I approached the ring slowly, searching for my opponent when suddenly a tall, Mike Tyson looking man appeared on the other side of the ring. He climbed onto the ring and then taunted me to get in and join him. I climbed onto the ring and the man, who was wearing black shorts with a white stripe and black boots, walked closer to me. He showed me his fist, I answered back and bumped his fist lightly. We walked to opposing corners pf the boxing ring and a bell rung, signaling the beginning of the fight.

I went in cautiously and waiting for him to make a move. I had my guard up and we both circled around each other for a bit when suddenly, he lunged forward and struck me with a hard cross. Despite the fact that I had managed to block it, my health still went down to about 70%. I definitely cannot take one of those head on if I have any desire to get out of here alive and well.

I stepped forward and punched him straight in the gut with a heavy strike, thus initiating the fast strikes skill. Despite landing the full combo, his health did not drop below 90% either. I unloaded a flurry of punches to his body and when he brought his arms down to defend his it, I landed a Concussion Blow and he stumbled backwards. He did not fall, but his punches lost precision, strength and speed, making them a lot easier to dodge. When he threw a specially horrible punch that almost made him fall down, I took the chance and Double Roundhouse Kicked him. He stumbled again, yet he refused to fall; his body was clearly having trouble moving and reacting, but something kept him upright. Although his ability to stay standing after receiving so many attacks made specifically to down opponents was marvelous, he could not bring his arms up for defense anymore. I took this as my chance to launch a full retaliation and landed another combo on him. Despite all this, his health was still at 50% and he refused to go down.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, "What did you just tell yourself, Ethan. No more martial arts fights." I pulled out the sword from my inventory and just hacked at him while he was helpless to do anything. Once he was dead I headed to the end of the room and stood on the circular platform. Although it was slightly different now. Before, the light emanating from the platform was green, now it was golden and black. When I stood on it, I was not asked whether I wanted to continue or not. Instead, I was simply teleported into the next room and given a large amount of money for seemingly no reason.

The floor seemed empty. It was a simple white, cube shaped room formed by gigantic white cubes. This was the only room vastly different from the others. It was way wider and longer and the ceiling was visible although still quite high up. There was also a sentence carved into the far back wall. It was written in Latin but it roughly translated to, "Only those who have entered with nothing, can leave this sacred place with the greatest of prizes."

I was barely done reading when I heard a deep and powerful voice, "Welcome, Challenger." That's when I saw a man walking towards me. His body, covered in battle scars. His toned muscles seeming to pulse with energy. He wore simple jeans, red converse and no shirt to show off said scars and muscles. His hair, a messy sea of red. His eyes, blank and dead, almost as if he had gone blind. 

The man cracked his neck and his voice changed from a booming, godly voice, to a smoother one, reminiscent of a man in his late 20's. "It's been a while since I've seen someone take on this dungeon from level 1. I don't know if you're brave or just a fool, but I do know you are a warrior at heart. You've figured out this game's system and created your own, personalized special skills. Impressive, to say the least, but that won't last very long. After all, your last opponent is me. Survive 5 minutes and you will be considered the winner of this challenge. I must warn you though..." He trailed off before disappearing. Suddenly, he appeared before me and I felt a gust of air come with him, "I don't play nice with anybody."

He must have been really far away, since only now did I realize he was over 10 feet tall. He literally looked down at me, with a very intimidating and piercing gaze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there, I just want to point out a few things you may or may not have already known.
> 
> 1) Half swording: This is something that people actually did in medieval times. Their were two ways of half swording. One was to grab the sword normally but then put your free hand near to tip of the blade. This way if you were thrusting the sword it would not bend as much when hitting something like metal armor. The other way is the way described in the chapter, when facing off against an enemy with full metal armor you have two options: stab through the gaps in the armor or use a bludgeoning weapon to dent the armor. If you only had a sword then you could do what was described.
> 
> 2) Fights in real life were really, much faster, as seen in this chapter.
> 
> 3) The concussion blow is a thing that can really happen. The base of the skull is the chin, if you hit it hard enough the skull will shake and the brain might hit one of the skulls walls, causing a small concussion. The side effects normally include nausea, dizziness and in some cases numbness in the legs and/or arms.
> 
> 4) The double roundhouse kick is also an example of this. One kick makes the head go in one direction and the other kick makes it change direction rapidly, causing the brain to hit one of the skull's walls in some cases.
> 
> 5) Going into a fight with a sword while your opponent is unarmed is just massacre. Your opponent can be as fast he wants, he's still at an extreme disadvantage. That's why most fights will be unarmed, for the sake of having longer, more interesting fights.
> 
> I don't have the images ready yet so I'll link the drawings my friends made for the chapter at the beginning notes of the next one. Toodles!


	6. Final Boss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For any Pictures of future chapters just follow this link https://www.tumblr.com/blog/alexithechoji . I will have notes at the beginning of a chapter if I have pictures available. This chapter and a few previous ones do have pictures.

The giant man then backed away and casually paced around in front of me. "I will give you as much time as you need to prepare yourself for this battle. I suggest you prepare well, otherwise you're going to be crushed."

I crossed my arms, "Could you not?"

He stopped pacing and turned to face me, eyebrow raised. "Excuse me?"

I looked him in the eyes, "Could you not? Could you not do that thing where you rant on and on like villain in some third rate cartoon. It's annoying. Also, could you stop talking to me like I'm some child? It's getting on my nerves."

The man stood there without a reaction for at least 5 seconds before he chuckled. "I see. Well alright then, Mr. Confident, I'll address you in a more proper manner and I'll shut my pie hole. Can I call you Ethan? Great. Glad we got that sorted out."

I looked at him unamused, "Whatever. What's your name? The health bar above your head says you're the Guardian of the Dungeon, but that's just so a mouthful. Isn't there anything else you go by?"

The Guardian simply shrugged, "I don't have any other name. Call me what you like."

I smiled, "Really? I can call you what you like? Anything I want?"

He rolled his eyes, "Sure. Call me a douchebag if you want. I don't care. Just hurry up and prepare for the fight, I'm not talking to you any longer. After I have tested your might as a warrior, then we can talk okay?" He turned around and began walking away.

I spoke quickly, wanting to make sure I could say this. "Let me ask just one more question, okay?"

The Guardian stopped an turned to look at me, "What?"

I gathered my thoughts for a bit before speaking, "Are you a special boss in some way? The inscription in the back wall makes it seem that way and I'm confused as to what your role is in all this and what this place is."

He looked at me with a bit of surprise and then returned his expression to normal, "Yes, this is a special event. This boss fight is only available to those players who are either brave or foolish enough to enter this dungeon alone, at level one and without any equipment from the outside world. If those foolishly brave individuals managed to get passage to the 10th floor, they are instead sent to me here, on the secret 11th floor."

I nodded and then another question popped into my head, "So then, there's a special reward for beating you right? Something nobody else gets? Or are you a specially hard boss fight for no apparent reason? Cause that would suck."

The Guardian chuckled, "You know out of the few people to ever fight with me, I think you're the most disrespectful, self absorbed and entitled of the bunch. You get beat up at school don't you?"

I glared at him. Where does he get off? When did I ever ask him to judge and insult me? Stupid Guardian and his smart mouth. I hope you have a very stupid death. Like tripping. Just trip and die. I inhaled deeply and pushed the angry thoughts away. It's time to prepare. I opened the crafting menu and checked my inventory. The crafting menu had two columns, one included my materials and items on one side and the other a list of items with their names and materials replaced by question marks. I suppose that these are the items I can craft and I need to figure out what they are by mixing certain materials together.

I started by mixing some of the spider silk with bits of cloth to make a small bag. Then I mixed the bag with some of the fire dust I got off the pyromancers. Fire Dust is something pyromancers use to boost their pyromancies, it is highly volatile, the slightest friction or heat will set it ablaze. When I mixed it together it created a Fire Bomb. "This makeshift bomb will explode when thrown. It's explosion is similar to that of a molotov cocktail's." Nice.

I then applied some of the remaining Fire Dust onto my sword. The sword's name changed into Temp. Fire Enhanced Gladius. "A straight sword with a fire enhancement skill. When swung, the air friction will set it ablaze. The sword will stay ablaze for 15 seconds before losing the buff. Afterwards, the sword will return back to normal and will no longer have the enhancement skill. It will deal burning damage and has a 2% chance of dealing extra damage and poisoning the opponent."

I used a couple of steel plates I had gotten from some of the soldiers to increase the durability of my armor. Finally, I equipped a ring I had gotten from the dual wielder. "Ring of Speed: increases the speed of all attacks." The skills I equipped were Stance, Heavy Strike and Fast Strikes. The buff I chose for this battle was the Berserker Rage.

I equipped my sword and shield and walked further into the room. "I'm ready for you! Let's do this thing!

A timer appeared in the center of the very large, white, square room. It had 5 minutes on it. The Guardian was standing all the way on the other side of the room when he shouted, "Begin!" The timer began counting down as the giant man disappeared.

He reappeared in front of me and I immediately thrust my sword out. He caught it with his bare hand when the sword set itself ablaze. His health barely moved as his hand was slashed at and cauterized. He raised his free, right hand and I raised my shield up, covering my body as best as I could. Next thing I knew, I was crashing into a wall and my health had essentially disappeared.

I quickly drank a health potion and looked ahead only to see the Giant was gone. I knew he would reappear somewhere near and I ran, jumped and rolled out of the way as he came crashing down on where I was standing. 

He smirked and looked at me, "Well played. How about we take this up a notch?" He then summoned a straight sword, similar to the way I do it whenever I summon things from my inventory.

I saw the blade in his hand and smiled, "This is fine..." Meanwhile, I could feel my world come crashing down on me. Hahahaha, I'm in danger.

He appeared in front of me and I immediately raised my shield and braced for impact. Luckily he hit against it, I was still pushed back a pretty long distance but I managed to avoid taking any damage and I managed to keep my feet on the ground. That gives me an idea.

I activated stance, braced myself and held my shield in front of me as he hit once more. His sword slightly went of course when it hit the shield and pierced my leg, knocking down 3/4 of my health.

"Special Skill Unlocked! Defensive Stance: use stance while blocking with your body or a shield to increase damage mitigation. Reduces damage taken by 20%. Cannot be knocked back or up when using this skill."

The giant chuckled audibly, "Even in the heat of such an intense battle you still find ways to grow. I guess your arrogance isn't completely just for show." I drank a potion and and tapped the special skill window away. I started walking towards him with sword in hand. The giant man smiled, "Oh? You're not gonna settle for surviving, huh? Tsk. Tsk. Ethan, that arrogance of yours is gonna be your downfall. To think I just complemented you for your mettle." I looked over at the clock and saw that there were still 4 minutes to go. The Guardian looked at it as well, "Let's see if you can even last that long. Then we can talk about you challenging me again." **  
**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so some of you may be wondering why a fire enchantment would apply poison. The answer is this: when a wound is heated it becomes cauterized, this stops the bleeding and some infection and has been used for quite some time. Hippocrates a man from Ancient Greece, has mentioned the process.
> 
> It was thought to prevent infections, however more recent studies show that the third and second degree burns that this cauterization process inflicts, leaves the wounded person more susceptible to infection. That's why I decided that there would be a small chance of inflicting poison on the enemy. Well yeah, I hope you enjoyed.


	7. 4 Minutes

As I walked forward, he lunged and I activated defensive stance, reducing the damage taken by a bit and I was able to stay close to him. I then thrust my sword into him before backing away to a more secure location. I shouldn't risk fighting him, but the way he talks down at me bothers me endlessly. I want to thrust this sword into his skull and twist it around as I make a mess of his brain tissue. I tried shaking the rage away. Anger would inhibit my ability to think straight and that's the last thing I need right now.

He began running towards me, this time at a speed my eyes could track. I braced myself once more activating Defensive Stance. This time, however he flipped his sword around and hit with the pommel as if it were a bat. The fact that my armor is a bit more susceptible to bludgeoning damage made my health go down by a larger amount. Okay, this was not good.

I started running away when I felt a shadow over me. I turned, activated Defensive Stance and held my shield with both hands as his sword came down on it. My legs felt like breaking under the weight of such an attack. Although my legs wouldn't actually break, it did hurt that much. The ground beneath me cracked and my trembled, almost giving out.

My health went down to about 20%. The Giant did not give me a chance to recover like last time. He thrust his sword at me once more. I knew I would not survive if I blocked this one so I tried parrying it away with both sword and shield. I was successful in doing so and I immediately tried using the leg breaking skill.

His humongous body made it easier for his leg to break. I ran away and drank more health potions as I saw him stand up once more. I heard cracking noises and saw his broken bones rearranging and being healed almost immediately.

He stood up and rubbed his knee, "That kinda stung a bit." He then looked up and I saw him smirking at me. As if talking down at me wasn't enough, now he was toying with me and actively letting me know! I was about to go on a rant when he magically turned his weapon into a spear. Great, now he had an even longer range. Why don't we just make it so he can stop time?

He ran at me once more and I readied myself to guard, but he suddenly jumped backwards. He threw his spear and I barely had time dodge as he blew away a large part of the room. The entire structure shook when he did and the shock wave still managed to hit me and knock me down to half health. I tried running away as I drank a potion to buy myself time.

suddenly, he appeared in front of me again. "You know, as much as I hate to admit it, you might be able to pass if you keep this up."

He then cocked his fist back for a punch. I tried blocking but his fist was faster. This one did not send me flying, I looked straight at him and I saw he had taken a boxing stance. He had just hit me with a Jab. I saw his hips turn and I dodged to the outside.

My guess was correct as he threw out a powerful cross. I hit his elbow and made it bend the wrong way. Then his right knee, then his left and then his left arm. After that, I ran to put some distance between the two of us. I was hoping to buy myself as much time as possible. I looked at the over at the timer which now showed 2 minutes left. I need to at least survive for these next two minutes. If I manage to kill him, which seems unlikely, then that's good too, but if not I at least need to survive.

The Guardian of the dungeon stood up again and he began doing this weird dance. I thought maybe that was a buffing skill and ran at him quickly to interrupt him. When I got within 4 feet of him he brought one of his legs forward and raised it. I immediately threw myself on the floor as the leg passed over my head and he continued dancing in a fluid motion.

Capoeira.

I backed away, staying just barely out of his reach as he slowly inched his way forward. If I can keep baiting him into walking this way slowly I'll survive. I backed away again when I felt like he got too close. 

Suddenly he got close to the floor and did some weird looking back hand spring somersault and said a weird word, "Macaco". He closed the distance immediately, reached for the floor and kicked towards my head while spinning.

I ducked quickly and grabbed his other leg. I pushed towards him and placed my foot where his leg would land after the kick. His body shifted backwards, I used that chance to raise his body slightly and slam him into the ground. His health went down a considerable amount this time, it was still way up but I made a large dent in it. I pulled away and kicked both his knees in and broke them. He took a longer time getting up now. I suppose the sudden health loss did some damage. The final minute was set into place when he finally stood.

He started stretching his legs and then his arms, "Okay. Time for the lightning round." He disappeared. He reappeared to my left, about 10 feet away. He punched the air before disappearing.

Next he appeared to my right, he threw another punch at the air before disappearing. When I tried to look for him again something hit my left side. I turned and saw nothing. I saw the giant in front of me when something hit me from my right. The giant disappeared again. What's going on here!? I started running to my left when I heard a wall explode. The wall was behind where I was standing at.

Is he punching the air with such force that the resulting shock wave can hit me hard enough to knock me away? I drank my last health potion. I grabbed my shield and ran. When the giant appeared I would trace the trajectory of the shock wave he created and avoid it. He threw more and more shock waves until eventually I had nowhere to run to in time. I raised my shield, went into defensive stance and took the shock wave head on.

As I took the shock wave I felt something behind me. The giant was right behind me, fist closing in. I would either have to take his fist unprotected from the back or take the shock wave unprotected. This whole time I've been taking this on like it's just a game, only now did I realize the real danger my life was in. I felt my eyes swell up with tears at the sudden realization of danger. Suddenly a loud beep was heard and the giant's fist went by me. The shock wave hit his fist and dissipated.

He then forcefully grabbed my hand and shook it, "Congrats kid. You survived. Just barely, but you survived."

I was too tired to even be mad at his tone. I fell back and laid on the floor, stared at the ceiling and let the tears flow out, not knowing whether they were happy and grateful tears or tears of fear.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case you're confused about what Macaco means, it is a top of somersault done in Capoeira. Search it up to see what it looks like.


	8. Dungeon Cleared.

The man produced a towel from God knows where and used it to dry his sweaty body and then left it slung over his shoulder. "Well, Ethan, you cleared the dungeon. Here are the rewards the dungeon grants all players with.

The name above my head changed from Brawler Ethan to Striker Ethan. My skill tree opened up to allow me to level up. Finally, the last reward was a medal that grants a passive bonus. I could choose between 3 different medals.

Enhanced Reflexes: It makes your body dodge all incoming attacks within 3 seconds of activation without your actual input. Every attack has a 5% chance of activating this. 

Superhuman Muscles: Boosts attack by 15%.

Impenetrable Defense: reduce all damage taken by 10%.

I chose Enhanced Reflexes, it would be nice to take some of the heat off of me with some auto dodge.

The Guardian then held out another medal out for me to take, "This is the special medal you get from beating the 11th floor."

???: Allows you to equip 2 buffs at a time.

I looked at it and accidentally thought out loud, "Why is it's name just three question marks?"

The man threw his towel at me, "Ungrateful brat." I was about to clarify what I meant to say when he cut me off. "It's a hidden item, almost like a glitch. Only 5 people have beaten this floor and you're the runt of the litter."

I raised an eyebrow, "Meaning?"

He rolled his eyes, "Meaning that of all the young warriors I've taken under my wing, you're the weakest. All the others managed to put up a greater fight than you and two of them even managed to defeat me."

I frowned, "How can that be? Weren't we all at the same level when we defeated you?"

He chuckled, "There's much more to this game than level and equipment kid. So much more which you don't know."

I thought I misheard him earlier, but he just confirmed my suspicions. "You call this a game. Are you aware of the fact that you're a fake character then."

He held his chin, "Gee, what could've given you that impression? You must be a modern day Sherlock Holmes."

This time I rolled my eyes, "You're absolutely unbearable, you know that right?"

He chuckled once more, "Whatever you say kid. Come back and challenge me again when you're stronger, I'll make it worth your while."

With that, I was off. I stood on a metal plate with a fist engraved into it and I was teleported outside the dungeon. Now it was time to teach a few people a really long, hard lesson.

I had apparently spent a whole 27 hours inside the dungeon and it was just before lunch time when I came out. I went back to my apartment, took a quick shower and then strode into the cafeteria.

"Ethan! My boy! You're back! I missed you, man!" I heard a familiar voice say. It was Todd, the most popular kid in my class. He walked over to me arms spread out and speaking cheerfully as if we were best friends. "I needed to copy off of your math homework yesterday, but don't worry, I spoke to the professor and he said that he'll accept it if I finish it and do another 50 exercises before the end of the day. So, get to work!" He said and gave me a pat on the shoulder.

He was about to turn away when I grabbed the hand he pat my shoulder with, "Actually, Todd, I'm dropping out of college and I'm no longer doing anything for you or your other brain dead colleagues."

He took a second before laughing cheerfully and signaling his friends over from their table. "Ethan, my man, you're so funny. Let's go out back so you can tell my colleagues your little joke, okay?" He laughed again and made me walk outside with him. Perfect, precisely what I wanted him to do. Once outside on a secluded area, he shoved me attempting to make me fall. He was a bit surprised when I stayed on my feet, but then regained his baseless confidence. "Now, why don't you repeat what you said to me for all the guys to hear?"

I smiled, "Sure! I'm dropping out of college and no longer doing anything for all of you brain dead retards!" I tried said that with the peppiest and most cheerful tone possible.

Todd laughed again, "Isn't this kid a riot?" His face then went serious and he threw a punch in my direction. It hit me straight in the face, but it did not knock me down or hurt.

I smiled once more, "You shouldn't have done that." I let my rage consume me and grabbed his arm. I brought it onto my knee like I was trying to snap it in half and I broke it. He yelled out in extreme pain, now remembering what it was like before the game, when your bones could actually break. His friends were just as shocked as he was when they saw Todd's arm. I quickly moved towards another one of his friends and dug my thumbs into his eyes forcefully.

"Special Skill Unlocked! Eye Poke: Roughly stick something in your opponent's eye and cause them immense pain. Will cause blindness for 2.5 seconds."

Well, that's a fun bonus. I grabbed the kid I had just blinded and brought my knee to his face several times. The other 4 guys around me finally reacted, surrounded me and began punching me. I tried dodging and blocking a few when suddenly, my body moved on it's own and dodged all of their punches while simultaneously moving out of the circle they created around me. I then grabbed two of the guys and bashed their heads together with as much force as I could. Todd finally stood up  and I grabbed him by the face, raised him up and then slammed him down onto the concrete floor with enough force to crack it. The two kids remaining tried to run away. I broke the legs on one of them and the other I caught and slammed him into the concrete like I did with Todd. I then grabbed the last kid by the neck, raised him and choked him. When he was about to lose consciousness, I let him go and roundhouse kicked him in the face. I didn't kill any of them, but they were all on the ground, cowering in fear. I then took a few deep breaths and calmed down.

Well then, now that that's over and done with, what do I do now? Should I rule over this college like a God? That seems rather small for someone as ambitious as myself. I've read about pro players who became rich and famous because of this game. I've heard some even get to rule over small towns or sometimes even small countries. Do I really want that though?

No. That's not it. I know what I want now, I want to make everybody realize who is the strongest player in this world. I will defeat all the pros and champions! Be worshiped by all as the best player in the game, I will be #1 after that, the money and the fame will come in by itself. I just need to play this game, be the best and beat everyone here.

I must admit though, such high ambitions will be difficult to accomplish by myself. I must form a team. I want at least 5 people excluding myself. I would most likely want a Guardian, 2 Clerics, a Sorcerer, a Thief and maybe another brawler.

That would be a good set up for a professional team. Let me see if there's a request or message system. "Message System." Nothing happened. "Player Request System." This time the system gave an announcement. It was a menu where players posted requests, whether it was a bounty on a player or a monster. Additionally there were requests for forming a temporary party for a quest and ones that asked for a permanent party in order to build a guild or some other thing like that. I mentally typed the words pro team and found three requests.

Two of these were from other brawlers that I ignored since I needed some long range support, the other was from a Sorcerer named John. Okay good, a Sorcerer is just what I need, long ranged offensive support. Hopefully he's actually a smart sorcerer. I replied I was a brawler looking to form a team with a sorcerer and he said to come meet with him, sending me his location.

Suddenly a mini map came into view in my vision. Oh cool, I didn't think of checking for a mini map before, that was kind of idiotic on my part.

I took my armor off and stayed with my normal civilian clothes to look less threatening. Then, I went to his location and looked for his name. I found him sitting in a park bench and I greeted him. He was an Asian American man, a bit taller than me, his build was slightly wider than mine. His hair was black and his eyes were a nice light blue. His long hair was tied into a sort of man bun.

I walked up to him and extended my hand outwards, "Hello, John. My name is Ethan, I'm the brawler who contacted you about forming a professional team."

"Hello, I wanted to meet you in person because of the reputation your class has. I don't mean to be offensive, but most brawlers tend to be muscles for brains. Judging from your introduction and posture however, you seem to be an exception." He smiled. So he's this type of person huh? Dominant and not afraid to speak his mind. He probably doesn't have many friends and frankly he probably doesn't care. Well, that doesn't make him a bad person, I'm kind of the same way.

I crossed my arms, "I told you why I wanted to form a pro team, now I want to hear your story. What is your reason behind creating a pro team?"

"Oh, you really aren't a simpleton. Pro players gain a lot of money, power and government backing. So, by becoming a pro I could have my own country if I wanted to. Not that that's what I want, but I do want the power, money and status that comes with being a high ranking pro player." He smiled as he said all this. It seemed like he was hiding something. Even if he smiled with his teeth, his eyes hid a lot of things and two of those things, I've learned to recognize easily over the years. One of them was a sense of superiority. I could see in his eyes how powerful he felt, how in control he felt. I could sense that he saw me as less than him, a pawn or a pet for him to play with. The other thing I could sense was pain. I don't know precisely what this guy has been through, but I could see it in his smile. That wasn't a genuine smile, it was the smile of a man who was trying to look happy and sane when he really wasn't. And in my experience, when you mix pain, a superiority complex and a touch of insanity together, you get one of two things. A sadistic monster or in rarer cases a suicidal maniac and it's very hard to tell which one a person is, because they are almost always able to mask it very well.

"Why are you lying to me? I can see right through your act."

His smile faded. He looked at me seriously, scanning me from head to toe, then he smiled again. "I like you. What was your name again? Kyle was it? You're interesting. Out of all the people I've met, you're the only one to have seen through me like this. I don't know if that makes me want to be closer to you or if it makes me wary of you. Regardless, you're very interesting, very smart too. I want you on my team. What do you say? Will you ally yourself with me?"

I looked at him straight in the eye and answered, without a stutter. "I will join you, but better keep your head on straight, otherwise I'm leaving you to fend for yourself. I don't want any conditions between us. We will form a party, but we are both entitled to leave whenever we see fit without having to say a single thing, got it?"

He smiled. This time genuinely, not the smile he uses to lure people in and charm them. It seemed we both agreed on this one thing. He shook my hand and we sealed the deal. We created a party and set the conditions so that either of us can leave at any time. Today marked the day I made a deal with John Lee. I hope I didn't accidentally sell my soul to the devil or something.


	9. Stealing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, it's a bit of filler although this small arc does grant both of these characters some new abilities and knowledge, so it helps increasing their skill repertoire.

John and I were walking to some local hunting grounds to level up quicker when he began to tease me for the sake of being annoying. "So Kyle, what type of brawler are you, fast or heavy?

"My name is Ethan! My god! ETHAN! It's a stupidly simple name! Get it right! Gosh!" I yelled and then rubbed my temples to calm myself down and avoid beating the ever living crap out of John. I sighed, "I'm a fast brawler. My specialty is many fast strikes to chip away at my opponent's health and also moves and skills that help me out maneuver them."

"Okay. That works out then. Well, Ethan, was it? I am very good at strategizing so I would much appreciate if you could follow my orders while we are in combat. I know a man like you is well enough without me, but I can prove useful to you in ways you did not anticipate." John said with a weird look on his face.

I looked at him unamused, "Bro, there were literally a million better ways to phrase that sentence."

John cackled in delight at my irritation and discomfort, "I know, I know, but really. I'll be in the back and have a greater grasp in terms of knowing enemy placement, so I think you should at least consider what I advice you to do in combat."

We made it to the hunting grounds, this vast plain with small hills reminiscent of those on the Windows start up background. This place did not exist here before the game but 7 years ago it suddenly appeared with tons of wild beasts ranging from horned beasts that resembled rhinos to big grotesque lion-like creatures that made the earth around them shake with every step. It was the middle of the day and the sky was a dark blue with a few, but very big clouds decorating it. The winds up there in the atmosphere seemed to be very strong since the clouds moved at a remarkable speed. Well, for a cloud that is.

I returned my attention to John, "So what are we gonna hunt?" He had changed his equipment to a red robe with a hood, reminiscent of what you would see a cult member in mainstream media portrayals wearing. He was also holding a very intricate wizard staff with a golden Asian dragon curled at the top of the staff.

He didn't even look at me when he answered, "Players."

I didn't even register the what he had said and simply replied with, "Oh, okay." I then realized what John had said and the horrific implications of it and had a much more appropriate response, "WAIT WHAT!?"

He chuckled, "Ah, that reaction never gets old. I was just messing with you. What we're going to do will make us earn a very bad reputation, but it won't turn is into criminals of any sort. It's a game I like to call 'Scumbag' and it's very simple. We find a party that is already in the midst of taking down a monster, right? Then, we hide and wait for them to lower the monster's health to 10%. After that, we come out of our hiding place, we chase the party that was originally battling the monster out and then we take down the already weakened monster. Simple, right?"

I thought about it out loud, "Minimal effort, full reward. Interesting. I like it."

John smiled, "Great!"

I then interjected, "But..."

John sighed, "Of course there's a 'but.'"

I looked at him in the eyes, "If you kill anyone or anyone dies on our watch and you could've done something to prevent it. I'll show you no mercy."

John sighed and face palmed, "Are you done?"

I frowned, "I mean it."

John rolled his eyes, "Whatever. I'll try to actually care about someone for once then. I can't promise anything though."

I sighed frustrated. He chuckled at that and finished messing around with his menu. He silently started walking in a random direction and I followed behind him. We reached a small hill where we heard grunts and the steps of some large animal. John signaled at me to get low. I crouched and we peeked at what was causing that large ruckus. I saw a group of five taking on a giant leopard-like being with a multicolored hide consisting of red and blue spots. The air seemed to carry a very strange, yet hypnotically sweet smell, akin to the smell of cinnamon and dough when you walk by a pretzel shop. The large colorful leopard was also able to breathe fire and if I didn't know any better, I'd say the fire's smoke carried the smell. I saw John fiddle with some paper and some glass bottles next to me. He seemed to be drawing something on the paper and he was putting it inside the glass bottles along with something else that I couldn't clearly see. The team we were looking at consisted of a guardian, a mage and a brawler. We waited until they brought down the monsters health to about a quarter.

John then stood up, "You take the enemy tank and I'll take their vanguard." I looked at him confused which forced a heavy sigh out of him, "You take the Guardian and I'll the take the brawler. Once those two are out, taking out the mage is easy business."

I smiled, "I knew that." Then I stood up and ran towards the Guardian. He was holding a large kite shield that covered a large part of his body.

I pulled out a sword from my inventory and slashed at him. He kept blocking the attacks through his shield and I got frustrated, so I activated my blood lust buff and the Spiritual Energy buff. It lasts for ten seconds and boosts my damage by 20%. After the 10 seconds I have to let the skill cool down for 15 seconds. As I activated the skill, my body was covered in a blue aura that according to the description is my fighting spirit, the blue aura looked like energy pulsating in tone with my heartbeat, the aura moved from my whole body to my arms. I resumed my slashing but saw almost no increase in damage. Something is not working. As I lost myself in thought I was smacked by an energy ball thrown by the enemy mage. I stumbled to the side.

John yelled from somewhere behind me, "Keep your head in the game, Kyle! Stop messing around and focus on your sword, idiot!"

I was about to yell back at him when an idea popped into my mind. I focused and made the pulsating energy on my body cover the sword in my hand.

"Special Skill Unlocked! Aura Blade: using Spiritual Energy move the power up to the blade of the sword increasing it's damage."

I then resumed my focused attack on the shield bearer, hacking at him and his defenses. The aura around my blade made it so that even if he was blocking, he would still receive some damage. My buff ended and his health was at the 25% mark. The monster behind us seemed to grow bored of the conflict and laid down to rest right then and there. I wasn't getting anywhere with attacking the shield bearer, I tried moving around him and attacking, but failed to get anywhere with him. Meanwhile, I saw in a great pillar of fire engulf the brawler John had been fighting with. The brawler then decided to run away and John smiled. He saw that I was able to see him slightly and he dropped one of the bottles he was fiddling with earlier. He pointed at the spot in the ground where it was and, from what I could gather from his improvised sign language, told me that it was dangerous and I shouldn't step on it. I got hit a few times by the Mage and Guardian, but the message John was sending me seemed to be of some importance. 

John then began yelling, "Retreat! Retreat!" and I ran away to the spot he warned me about, I was looking at the ground and when I saw the glass bottle I made sure not to step on it. The shield bearer was very committed to fighting me now and he followed. He didn't see the trap John had set and stepped on the bottle. I heard glass break and a couple of seconds after that, felt a great amount of heat behind me. I turned around and saw a pillar of fire that seemed to be at least 6 feet in diameter and 10 feet tall engulf the shield bearer completely. He yelled and his health was nearly gone. He retreated, much like the brawler and now the only one left was the defenseless mage. John went over to tell them to leave peacefully and I dealt with the huge leopard. It was still laying down and when I got close to it, it simply opened it's mouth. I could smell that sweet, intoxicating cinnamon again, but I forced myself to focus. I filled my sword with aura once more and I stuck it into one of the beast's eyes. The beast roared out in pain and stood up, it tried to step on me and claw at me, but I moved away and dodged swiftly. I took my time hacking at it's legs and then I received a bit of help from John, as he threw fireballs and also summoned some orbs of magic to attack with. A few fireballs later and slashing at the beast's eyes and it was downed. Its drops included Fire Dust and something called Pantera Powder. We both leveled up once with that kill and John immediately went to distribute his points.

I decided to leave the points there for another time and selected the tornado kick skill, which is essentially the kick you see in movies where the guy spins in the air before he kicks. After that I sat down and waited for John to finish up his point distribution.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are two illustrations for this chapter. One of this newly introduced character John Lee, and the other is of the large leopard creature described in this chapter known as the Pantera.


	10. Firewall

John's eyes seemed busy and I deduced he was probably fiddling with one of his menus. "Heal up, Ethan. I want to try something out and I need you to be over 60% health."

I raised an eyebrow, "What are you testing out, exactly?"

John kept sorting something out in his inventory, "Don't worry about it, just make sure to cover your appendages with that spiritual energy thing when we enter our next fight."

I was a bit hesitant to trust him, he didn't seem to care about anything or anybody, and if my first theory holds any truth, he probably doesn't care about himself either. The only thing stopping me from questioning his orders was the last battle. He didn't do anything to make me doubt him or his actions, so I reluctantly agreed to go along with his ideas. I would do so with caution, but do so nonetheless. I healed up and we walked around looking for a new group to prey upon. We eventually found another group, this one composed of three brawlers who wore the robes of a Shaolin monk. Needless to say, their abilities in the martial arts were as amazing as a fish's ability to climb trees. That is to say, nonexistent.

John smiled, "Perfectt, what better test subjects than these defenseless little lab mice."

I chuckled a bit. He wasn't wrong in describing them that way. If we didn't scare them off, the oversized rhinoceros would kill them. I looked at John and nodded as if telling him I was ready for what he had in mind. I covered my body in spiritual energy and focused it onto my appendages as I ran into battle. He began to chant something and a magic circle formed in the air in front of him.

-Ignite: Ethan- he spoke, as the circle disappeared.

Suddenly my arms and legs were set on fire as a system announcement appeared, explaining that my attacks now dealt fire damage and that I would begin taking damage. Due to the spiritual energy covering me, however, I lost no health. It felt nice to kick and punch my enemies and watch them feel the burning damage. I felt like an actual video game character, it was nice. The enemy party eventually gave up and we told them to run away. We took down the remaining 2 thirds of health the rhino had left and continued walking onwards.

I looked at my hands as we walked, "That... was awesome." I don't trust John. I really don't. Nor do I particularly like him, but without him I wouldn't be able to say that I essentially Falcon Punched someone.

John chuckled, "Yes it was. In fact, one might argue that it was... lit."

And with that John lost the respect I had for him. My disappointment must have been visible because he cackled as soon as he looked at my face. I didn't allow myself to laugh and merely chuckled. I had almost let him rope me into his little charade, but that cackle of his reminded me of who he really was. He wasn't really a friend or comrade, he wasn't laughing with me, but instead at me. I kept forgetting his charm was only superficial. If I kept forgetting it, it could prove fatal. 

Apparently the only people left here were small fries, so we barely had any trouble making them retreat and the monsters they were fighting gave nearly no Experience Points. After a long while we leveled up once more and I distributed 1 of my points to strength and 3 into dexterity. After wandering around aimlessly for a while we saw this group of five battling a man wearing a dark blue hoodie, his hair was short and white, reminiscent of Jack Frost's. He was surrounded by a weird aura and electricity pulsated out of him in streams. His eyes were completely white, they were glowing and electricity came out of them as well. John moved to a better vantage point and I followed. We laid down on our stomachs and we could observe the battle from a nearby hill.

As soon as we spotted him, a huge health bar appeared at the bottom of the screen and a name above it. His name was Electromancer: Jack Sparks. The creativity was strong with this one.

"I've never seen this before, what kind of boss appears at a place like this. There are no indications of this being the stage tailored specifically for it and no monsters guarding said stage.

"It's a random encounter boss, sometimes referred to as field boss. They can appear anywhere over a large area and are the only bosses you can kill more than once. We're lucky we found this, as long as we land the killing blow, the experience goes to us." John smiled like a cliche villain.

I nodded, "So what do we do for now? Wait for the party to take down the boss's health for us?"

"Yup. Be careful though, we most likely aren't the only party trying to steal this kill." John gave me some flasks with paper sealed inside it. Some had a red sticker on them and some had an orange one. "You will focus on the boss and I'll hold off the other parties. First, you will circle around the boss while being 10 feet away from him and drop the flasks with the orange tags every something feet until you have gone completely around the boss, drop them so that each flask is in one of the twelve positions of the clock."

I did some quick math and calculated the distance I needed. "So every, 5 feet 2 inches, roughly."

He blinked then looked at me quizzically. "Sure. Anyways, after that you will step on the first flask and then rush in. If he lunges forward while you circle around him throw a red tagged flask harshly into the ground between you and him then continue to circle around him."

I tried to memorize John's instructions while we waited. When the boss' health went down to about a quarter or maybe a little less, I patted John on the shoulder signaling to him that I would commence our attack. I ran towards the boss and saw some other people come out of hiding and run as well. Some tried tripping each other, or they fought the members of the party that was first fighting with them. Someone tried tripping me, but I jumped over their foot and sped off. I activated spiritual energy and focused it onto my feet not knowing if this would work.

Since running involves kicking the ground I thought focusing my buff into my legs would help me move, but no such luck. The brawler of their team dashed and placed himself between me and the boss. I leapfrogged over him and the aura at my feet seemed to make my landing feel softer and more fluid. Maybe I could use this if I ever needed to jump off of some high up place.

I heard fire and felt it's heat nearby, then I saw one of the runners next to me fall for no apparent reason. "Set the trap!"

I ran in circles around the boss and dropped the flasks as I was told. The boss charged at me a couple of times and I threw the flask harshly, causing a large pillar of fire to engulf the boss. When I was done I stepped on the first flask and rushed into the circle while the boss was still recovering from the fire pillar. The flask broke and a magic circle appeared and activated. The rest of the flasks began glowing as well and broke, the circles within them touching and I saw their glow strengthen and weaken in unison before activating. Pillars of fire erupted from them, then they unraveled and constructing makeshift walls that joined together, sealing me and the boss from the outside world.


	11. Chi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is art for this chapter too. Also, as a heads up, I've tagged all my posts with "chapter#" the "#" representing the chapter number, meaning that if you want to search for the art of a specific chapter, then you can just type the word chapter and it's number in the search bar and you'll find it with ease. I'm sorry I can't add a link directly to the post, last time I did it ended up not working, but I hope you can bear with me. Note: Although I do have illustrations for different people and such, that does not necessarily mean that it is the correct absolute image. I add the illustrations to help better understand the general appearance of the characters and enemies, but it is also up to your interpretation. I don't feel like I NEED to clear this up, but you know, it's still nice to say things. This story is currently still in the makings and I'm very flexible, so if there's anything at all you want to see, comment it below or send me a message to my tumblr. Anyways, I've rambled on for far too long, enjoy this chapter and I'll see you in the next one.

It was just the Electromancer, with about three eighths of his health gone, and me. He was standing still as if unsure of what he should do. I walked up to him and punched him once. Immediately after this, the health bar at the bottom of the screen went from yellow to red. The boss let out a harsh battle cry as he seemed to charge up even more electricity and pull it into himself. His hair began to stand on end due to the static and his eyes were discharging electricity. He suddenly disappeared, a trail of lightning being left behind and I saw that it appeared to go behind me.

Suddenly I was kicked harshly and saw my health bar nearly destroyed. I quickly got on my feet and drank a health potion as I saw the boss stop his high speed movement and slowly walk towards me. I've never understood this, I don't think it makes sense biologically for electricity to make you faster, yet almost all superhero-themed illustrated novels have a character like this. After a few seconds he disappeared once more and nailed many hits on my body which I blocked as best as I could with defensive stance. My health still went down to about a quarter but I took notably less damage. I drank a potion and counted the seconds he wasted walking slowly before disappearing again. I had a 7 second window of opportunity. I went back into defensive stance and used spiritual energy all over my body to increase my defensive capabilities. As I took the damage I was already reaching into my menu for a sword and a potion. As soon as the blows stopped I ran forward, Gladius Sword in hand as I chugged down a potion. I slashed at him several times and saw his health go down further. His health was at about one fifth when I backed away, summoned a shield and blocked his attacks once more. He looked visibly more tired now and as he stood still, panting instead of walking forwards to close the distance like before. I slashed at him twice making his health go to about a tenth. 

Then his health bar went black as he wailed in pain and I was pushed away. He levitated into the air, arms extended to the sides, blood coming out of his nose and eyes from how much he was exerting himself, his body was shaking in a seizure like manner. Bolts of lightning came down on the makeshift arena John had made, some landed next to me and others came down further away. I had to stop him now before one of those bolts actually hits me. I channeled the spiritual energy to the entirety of my legs this time as I attempted to jump closer to him. The buff on my legs allowed me to jump high enough to reach him where he hovered. I hoped to any god up there that I wouldn't just get struck by lightning and died. I grabbed my sword ice pick style with both of my hands, I raised it over my head and then swung it down on the Electromancer with as much force as I could muster. The enemy stopped moving entirely, his eyes then rolled to the back of his head and he let out one last scream as he died and shattered away into nothing. I leveled up twice and so did John. I had also received some items from the boss, but I was too focused on escaping the scene to really see what he had left us. When the boss was dead I jumped through the flames taking some damage to see how John was doing. I saw him using a weird pyromancy that made an explosion in his hand as he tried to keep the enemy party member away from him. He couldn't see me and he was visibly distressed with this whole situation. I put two of my points into dexterity and two into strength.

Once more, I channeled all the energy onto the entirety of my legs and took of running. The buff allowed me to achieve a form of super speed and I moved as fast as I could towards John. When I got close to him, I slung him over my shoulder and ran. I ran until the buff turned off, I checked to see if we were far enough away from the party and then I let John down and let myself fall face first onto the grass beside him.

John covered his mouth and seemed to swallow harshly, perhaps about to vomit. "Don't ever do that again." He was going to say more, but he doubled over and vomited. I simply laughed and waved it off. After a while he had regained his composure and he looked at me with scorn. We both just sort of silently decided to stay here for a bit and finally have some rest, at least for a little while. John then sat up and looked at me intrigued, "Hey, Ethan. Activate your spiritual energy buff for me please." I saw no way he could possibly harm me or himself with that so I complied. "Now close your eyes and breathe in slowly." I raised an eyebrow and looked at him. I was about to question what he would do, not quite trusting him, but he seemed to read my mind. "Just do it, I'm trying to help you, not be a nuisance." I snickered a bit and did as he said. "Good. Now, focus on your breathing and visualize the aura around you. It's a part of your body, you can control it. Instead of letting it flow freely and have sudden rises and falls in power, make it an even sheet covering your body."

I tried to visualize the energy around my body. It was in sync with my heart but like he said, sometimes the energy in it spiked and other times it dropped. I tried to control it and make it even, like a thin coat covering my whole body. Normally the buff wouldn't last long, however through this process it lasted several minutes, then it settled, completely calmed down into a single coat. I opened my eyes and saw it, the normally chaotic aura around me was now smooth and almost glossy.

"Special Skill Unlocked! Chi: through meditation you have learned to refine your Spiritual Energy into a thin, more controlled coat with great power all around. This buff will last throughout the whole combat now and you will gain a 25% increase instead of a 20% increase. You can cover your whole body with it or divert all the power to specific areas of the body."

John had stopped paying attention to me a while ago and was looking at his staff proudly. I saw no visible change in the staff but, what did I know about pyromancy, right? I thought back to all the skills I saw him use, fire breath, fireball, enfire and that one fire pillar trap thing. That last one had me a bit curious, it was the only skill that he didn't activate himself, instead it was dependent on the enemy stepping on a glass flask. "Hey, John, what was that whole fire pillar thing inside those glass flasks?"

His eyes lit up a bit, "It's called Eruption, it makes a pillar of fire appear under the enemy, however I modified it into a trap ability that would set off when the flask holding it is crushed. You see, it's actually a magic circle written on paper and put inside a small flask. That flask is surrounded by another flask filled with liquefied mana. When the flasks are crushed, the mana seeps into the magic circle and activates the spells. In the case of the fire wall, I made the circles conditional to one another. When the magic circle in one of the orange flasks activated, the others would as well. The fact that they combined and made a wall of fire was just a gamble. I figured they would interact with each other in some way." He spoke very excitedly about how he turned the spell into a trap and such, but I was quite horrified when I heard him speak so nonchalantly, about the fact that our whole plan was based on a gamble. I was impressed it worked out as he predicted, but horrified nonetheless. I was definitely right in thinking he didn't care about anybody, not even himself, because he very clearly put our lives on the line based on a gamble.


	12. Training

After resting for a bit, we decided to walk back to town and into one of the new buildings, an inn that suddenly appeared 7 years ago along with the game. It was the traditional inn/tavern with a tavern, where downstairs you could order food and ale, and upstairs. A few NPCs sat at the tables drinking and cheering loudly, some were fighting, arguing or arm wrestling and such. The only other players there were either eating, drinking or watching the rowdy NPCs bickering and fighting. 

John paid for the night, 1 room and 2 beds. Immediately after we purchased we went into our room. It was a wooden room, about 9 feet tall, 12 feet long and 9 feet wide. There was a small white, wooden, round table in the middle of the room with ornate white chairs on opposite sides. We sat down at the table and I checked my inventory for the boss reward. I saw 4 items that seemed to pop out more than the others. There were two skill books, one was for the lightning palm technique and the other was for the lightning strike spell. Additionally, there was a spark gauntlet and a weird gem. The gem was named Lightning Essence Stone.

I pulled out all these items into the table and let John inspect them. "So I was thinking I could have the Lightning Palm Technique and you would take the Lightning Strike Spell because of the range on them."

He nodded and grabbed the lightning essence stone. "I'll be taking this, okay?" Before I could answer he had already started to inspect it in his own inventory, but either way I had no use for it. So I took the Spark Gauntlet and then walked over to my bed where I sat down. I touched the book and the game asked if I wanted to learn this skill. I accepted and the book flashed brightly and disappeared as the skill was unlocked. In hindsight, what would I need lightning palm for if I had the spark gauntlet. Well actually, if I got better equipment I could still deal lightning damage with the technique and not be forced to wear the gauntlets.

"I'm going outside to test my skill real quick. Wanna come with?" I asked John.

John was absorbed into his work as he added a dragon ornament into the staff. His staff was oak wood, it had a gold painted ball at the bottom and an Asian style dragon that curled around the top of the staff, the dragon's mouth hanging open. With the new addition, he made the other dragon curl in the opposite direction so they were on opposite sides of the top, both of their mouths open.

"Leave your Spark Gauntlet." John responded. "And your Sword too." he added in a neutral tone, still focused on his work.

"Why?" Okay, I know he hasn't done much to affect my life expectancy directly, but he did gamble with both of our lives earlier. I know I should stop being so suspicious, but still, I was not going to leave myself defenseless by giving a possibly crazy person my only two weapons.

"You don't need a Spark Gauntlet if you already have lightning palm, right? Let me see if I can add the lightning effect onto your sword." He never took an eye from his staff and his work even as he spoke.

"Oh... Got it." I left both items there for him and went downstairs into the inn. I asked the man at the reception if he knew of a place where I could train and try out skills.

"There's a temple nearby where monks train in several martial arts and players go there as well." He was playing with his pen, quite bored and by the look on his face, this conversation was the highlight of his day. Which is kinda sad, but it tends to be that way when you're at the bottom of the societal hierarchy. 

"Thanks for the information." I then left the inn and went up the hill that led to the temple. Because of course, all Asian looking temples teach Martial Arts. And of course, all of them just so happen to be up a hill or in high vantage point. When I reached the top of the hill, I saw a stone archway that served as the entrance to the temple courtyard. Next to the archway was a very kind looking, middle aged man with a shaved head and wearing some robes. I walked up to him and he began speaking to me.

"Welcome, outsider, this is a place for people to hone their martial arts skills or any other skills with physical effects. You can also learn Weapon Arts and learn how to perform more advanced techniques with weapons provided by the temple."

"That sounds interesting. Can I learn some weapon arts?" Suddenly a menu appeared. It showed tabs called basic sword skills, basic spear skills and the such. When I mentally opened the tab it showed several locked missions and then a mission I could actually do.

When I clicked it, it showed me the description which specified the amount of enemies, the type of enemy and the mission objective. I clicked and I was transported to the temple courtyard. It was composed of large stone tiles and there were several  small spots where trees were growing out of.

A single monk was standing in front of me waiting for me to bow to initiate combat. I was given a sword and I bowed to initiate a combat. I channeled Chi into my legs and ran to him at an incredible speed and chopped his head off.

Mission Complete: Weapon Art Unlocked! Active Parry: Use your sword to deflect an attack to the side while still keeping your sword aligned to the target.

Well, that's nice, but not what I'm here for. I exited the next mission and was transported back outside the temple.

It took me a while to get used to the whole teleporting thing. When I finally realized that I was outside again I interacted with monk once more, "Is there a sort of training room I can use to test out my skills?"

The nice man nodded, "You can spar with other players in the dojo for training." I said that I would like that and a menu that showed me the available players and their classes appeared. I chose a random Guardian since they're very durable and have a high health, meaning I could train for a lot longer and also learn how to deal with enemies with a much higher physical endurance than mine.

I was transported into the dojo where I saw a dark skinned girl, dressed in a rather fashionable way. The name displayed above her head read "Audra". She was skinny, but she was neither toned with muscles nor was she skeletal in nature.

She smiled, "Let's have a good fight." Her voice was soft and cute, really fitting her appearance.

I smiled back at her and bowed, signaling I was ready for combat, "Yes. Let's have a good one."

She bowed back in response and readied herself, after this both of us had our clothing instantly changed into a training Gi with a white belt and no footwear. I channeled my Chi to my legs once more and rushed her, stopping in front of her to throw a kick. Instead of the thudding sound I was expecting, I heard a nice clean smack. Audra had caught my right leg with her left hand. She stepped forward, let go of my right leg and swept my left leg with her right causing me to fall. I used the same momentum and rolled back to my feet.

I rushed her again and threw a punch at her this time. She grabbed my wrist and bent my hand, in such a way that she forced me to extend my arm and my wrist was facing up. Then she pushed down where my arm meets my shoulder, forcing me to bend over and look down where I saw her knee was rising to meet my face. She kneed me twice in the face, let go of me and while I was stumbling she landed a sidekick to my face that made me fall on my back. I looked up at her, she smiled and then offered me her hand. I took it and she helped me stand back up. I realized then, that the fights weren't based on bringing the other's health down. Instead, an NPC would witness the match and when he or she decided that one player was clearly dominating the battle, he would stop it and the dominating player would be given the win.

She smiled cheerfully, I was unsure of whether she was being peppy for the sake of being peppy, or if she was smiling in a gloating and prideful manner. 'Good Match!"

I forced a smile, "Good Match. Don't misunderstand, but could you show me what you did there to overpower me? It's just that I would've never expected that a Guardian would be able to overpower a brawler in raw physical strength. If I'm being honest, I'm kinda butt hurt about losing, so could you just let me in on how you reacted so quickly to my attacks and also managed to counter them with ease." I'm pretty much a God at social cues and interacting with other humans. I would never talk to another human simply because they have something to offer me. And I would certainly not initiate the conversation in a very awkward and weird way. I have friends.

She seemed confused for a bit, clearly not understanding how someone could initiate a conversation so smoothly. She then snickered a bit, I'm sure she was laughing at her own stupidity for not understanding social cues. She smiled confidently, "Sure. If you can beat me." Her eyes were full of mischief, pride and entertainment.

I produced the best fake smile I could, "Oh, it's on." I'm going to rip her to shreds and snap her in two over my knee if it's the last thing I do.


	13. Audra

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More art for this one coming soon. I'll be posting it within a few minutes.

She walked back to the other side of the dojo and I did the same. I bowed once more and she followed suit. I channeled Chi and much to my surprise she seemed to cover herself in a very similar aura. I once again rushed her, stopping in front of her and jumped high up. I raised my leg as high as it would go and swung it down as I fell.

Special Skill Unlocked! Axe Kick: Raise your leg and bring it down forcefully.

Special Skill Unlocked! Guillotine Kick: After jumping high into the air perform an axe kick.

She swiftly jumped back and out of the way, avoiding my attack.  With the same grace, she jumped forward, fist raised and I dodged out of the way and hit her elbow to see if I could break her arm. I felt like I had hit a stone, shocked at the hardness of her body I jumped away and put myself into my defensive stance. She ran at me and placed her foot behind me and a hand on my chest, before she could push me and make me trip, however, I grabbed onto her arm and the back of her neck, focusing my Chi onto my arms to increase my grip strength. Her body still wouldn't budge so if she didn't go down with me, I wouldn't go down either. 

Her reaction wasn't as quick this time and I jumped over her, grabbing her by the head. This caused me to flip over her and pull her along with me. I let go of her and landed flat on my feet, but she was still off balance and quite confused about what had just happened, so I swept her leg with a kick and she fell. Suddenly her movement speed shot back up, she pushed herself onto her hands and then extended them outwards as she kicked her feet, causing her to stand up remarkably quickly. She tried to sweep my leg away and I focused all of my Chi into that one leg to try to stop her. I withstood her leg sweep, but she quickly bent down and grabbed hold of it. She then raised me up by the one leg and then threw me onto my back. As my back hit the floor she got on top of me and nailed various harsh strikes to my face until the referee NPC decided to stop the match. 

Just like the last time, she helped me stand up with a smile on her face. "Good Match! Want a rematch?" She was clearly enjoying her dominant position over me.

I tried to be nice and smiled as genuinely as I could, "I won't give up until I beat you. I'm sure I can beat you if I keep trying."

Her smile became a bit more twisted into a Cheshire Cat grin. "Oh, are you? Don't worry, the night is still young. I still have time to make you give up."

Okay, that's it. I'm beating her right the hell now.

I went to my side of the ring and bowed, then channeled my Chi once more. I closed my eyes and focused only on my Chi and my breathing, trying to summon more. I could hear the floorboards creaking as Audra got closer, I did not open my eyes though. I was sure she would hit me in any second, not planing on letting me stand there and channel power for any longer, but it wasn't until I felt like I had increased the amount of Chi I had available to me that I opened my eyes.

She had bent down and grabbed my leg, looking for a take down, this time I did not budge however. I pushed her away from me and with my newfound strength I twisted her hand and put it between her shoulder blades, hindering her movement. Even with this newfound strength her body seemed impossibly heavy. I did manage to trip her, however and we both fell down like a rock. I focused all of this Chi into my arm and punched her in the back of the head several times. At some point, the force of my strike could actually be observed as her body flinched more at each strike, the referee then stopped the match, declaring me the winner. Finally, our roles were reversed, she was on the ground and I was the one helping her up.

I smiled at her the same way she had done to me. "Good Match!"

She still smiled back, "Good Match indeed. I guess I gotta teach you some of my moves now, huh?" She said a little downtrodden, clearly a bit bothered by her defeat and much to my enjoyment.

We were both transported outside together and she took me to the training grounds of the temple, which you could actually access without talking to the Monk NPC. She showed me a few of her throwing techniques and in return I told her to meditate while channeling the buff she used in battle causing her to unlock Chi.  Apparently, my meditation before granted me a Special Skill called Stronger Chi, very creative name. Although I didn't particularly like her because of her gloating nature in battle, she turned out to be a very nice person which almost made me feel bad about enjoying her defeat. Almost.

After that, we sat down outside the temple's stone archway and on the stone stairs that served as a path up the hill to it."So, why are you playing this game? And, if you don't mind me asking, why did you choose the Guardian class of all things? You seem like you would benefit from a more aggressive class like the Brawler."

She cleared her throat, "That's, uh, kinda personal and stuff."

"I'll say mine if you say yours."

She scoffed, "I don't think what you have to offer compares to my story."

I sighed, "If I tell you that it's childish and pathetic would that help?"

She looked at me intensely and nodded, "Very much so. Yes."

I rolled my eyes at her, "Well it is. It is the most basic and cliché thing you'll hear all week. So would you mind sharing yours?"

She thought about it for a bit and let out a sigh.

"Well, at first it was out of fear.  Every day, women are raped or assaulted because they are seen as members of the weaker gender. When this sick game started, the crime rate rose and the severity of the crimes committed skyrocketed alongside it. So I played and joined the Guardian Class to defend myself. I didn't want to depend on anyone else, it makes me feel pathetic and I'm a grown woman, I can take care of myself. It also makes people waste time on me when I have the means to protect myself with available to me. So I wanted to change, I didn't want to be the damsel in distress and I didn't want to depend on others. Eventually, I began to have more fun and kept playing, I enjoyed being strong and free, not having to worry about going out at night with all the self-proclaimed super villains in this world. Although it may sound cliché, it was really scary to go out at night alone when there are so many powerful people out there with evil intentions. My friends would tell me stories of how they were almost kidnapped or assaulted if not for the fact that they kept mace, and in some cases, knives in their pockets. I didn't want to keep living with that fear though, why should I? So that's how I got here and why I am the way I am. I would much rather accept this world's evil and fight it than expect someone else to do something about it and live a limited life full of fear. I would no longer be the protected, instead I would be the protector." She said all this with a quiet, yet burning passion within her. She then cringed at her own words, "It sounds kinda childish, doesn't it? Why did I even tell you all of that? I don't even know you and I'm talking to you like you're my best friend."

"No, it makes sense, I think it's admirable that you chose to better yourself with this game instead of selfishly using it to climb to the top like others do or letting fear keep you down low. You saw something you didn't like about the world, saw a way to change it and you went for it. What happened to all the bravado you had during our fight? You don't seem like a meek woman who would so easily accept her ideals as childish pipe dreams."

She smiled, "You're right. I literally just went back to how I used to be before this game! No longer! The new Audra Munio Hernandez will not let herself get down so easily! Well, how about you?"

I told her how I wanted to be the best around so that I could live an easy life and get the respect I never got from the people around me and she laughed, commenting on the childish mentality behind such an ideal. I added her to my friends list and she did the same. Before we parted ways I told her about John and asked her to join my party. If she joined us in becoming a pro team, not only could she live off of it as a career, but she could do us the favor of protecting us on our journey and if we became famous, she would be recognized world wide as one of the greatest protectors out there, a form of heroine if you will. She said she didn't really care about the fame or recognition, but that she would think about it and with that I went back to the inn to find John already asleep. I took a quick shower and settled into my own bed.


	14. Meeting

I awoke and the sun was already comfortably up in the sky, I guessed yesterday's training with Audra got the best of me. On the small white table was my Gladius which now had a small yellow gem affixed to it. Upon inspection, the sword's description was essentially the same but its stats now included lightning damage. The gem itself was not special, I guess John put it more as mark that it did lightning damage and not the actual source of said damage. John himself was nowhere to be seen, when I looked at the world map for his current location it showed that he was somewhere in town at a shop. I had a lot of loot that I didn't need and John didn't want either so I suppose I should go to a shop as well and sell it. I mean, what would I need ruined armor, broken bones and large feline hide for?

I got dressed and walked to the shop John was in. I saw many NPCs of different fantasy races like dwarves, elves and orcs, all of which would wave at players when they walked near them. The town itself wasn't medieval or fantasy-based though, it was a normal town with tall apartment buildings, clothing stores, pharmacies, office buildings and the sorts. I walked around until I saw where John was at. This place looked normal on the outside but the sign on top read Griselda's Shop of Magical Trinkets. Seven years ago when you saw a place like this you might've thought it was a scam artist, nowadays it's where mages get their stuff. John was at the counter with a piece of wood, haggling the price of a certain piece of wood with the woman at the cash register.

"Oh come on." He spoke in a singsong manner while flashing his charming smile. "You and I both know this isn't worth that much." He then winked seductively at the lady.

The lady was clearly unfazed and unamused by John's attempts to seduce/persuade her. "I'm sorry sir, but I can't lower the price."

I walked up to John and the lady. "Yo, what's up?"

He sighed frustrated. "I want this living wood staff but the lady won't sell it to me."

"Is there no other way to get living wood?"

"There is, but we'd have to fight a tree, the tree can't be taking fire damage as it dies and it deals tons of damage. We'd need an amount of potions we can't afford in order to survive." He was clearly very irritated by this.

I smiled. "Well, we're in luck. I met with a guardian yesterday, maybe I could convince her to join us."

His smile returned. "Really? Well that would most definitely be a game changer."

"Yup. I'll try to see if she'll come with us." I then proceeded to sell all of my useless loot.

After this I messaged Audra and asked her if she had decided whether to join us or not. 

"I think I'd have to go on a preliminary mission with you guys before I make my final decision." She texted me.

"That's great, we actually need a Guardian right now to get some living wood, so you could come with us and make your final decision afterwards." I sent back.

"Sounds good." She sent back.

I sent her the location of the park where I met John and I told John we were going to meet up with her there.

I told him that she wouldn't join our party permanently, that this was just a sort of test drive. As we walked to the park I thought more and more about how I had unlocked a greater version of Chi yesterday. I said the words "Skill Upgrade" in my mind and was surprised by a new system announcement. As I checked the skill tree I now saw 3 to 5 dots below the name of each skill, most of the skills had a single dot lit up except for Spiritual Energy which had 3 dots lit up.

Apparently to upgrade skills you must fulfill certain conditions, the special skill, Chi was not actually a special skill but an upgrade to Spiritual Energy. Greater Chi was an upgrade to Chi. I looked for my other special skills but didn't find them. So I once more said in my mind "Special Skills". I then saw a new menu which listed all of my Special Skills, how I unlocked them and they also could be upgraded.

I had lost myself in my thoughts so much that I didn't notice when we arrived at the park. Audra was already sitting on a bench waiting for us. When she saw us she stood up and waved. Her wardrobe was very similar to last time only this time the shirt had both shoulders, the stripes were red and white and she wore a little hat.

"Hello, Audra, I'm happy you agreed to join us. This is John the one I told you about yesterday. John, this is Audra." I introduced them and they both shook hands.

John flashed a smile, "It's a pleasure to meet you, honestly it's quite hard to believe someone as...petite as you are is a Guardian." His tone was a bit challenging. Audra didn't seem to like it one bit.

She smiled back, although I could see the vein on her head about to burst from sheer anger. "Well, I guess you'll find out how wrong you are when you're begging me to stay in your party." The grip she had on his hand tightening a bit.

John pulled his hand back quickly, "Feisty, huh? Maybe you really are tougher than you seem." 

I cleared my throat trying to ease the tension between these two. "So um, Audra, we will be hunting down a living wood tree and your job will be to protect us from it's attacks while we take it down."

"I know Ethan, I didn't become a Guardian yesterday, you know? So, you boys ready?" Her tone was sassy, yet playful, her confidence exuding out of her.

 


	15. VGhlIEdvc3BlbCBvZiBKb2hu

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eSBwcm9ibGVtcy4gIEp1c3QgbGlrZSBtb3RoZXIsIEkgb25seSBzZWUgcGVvcGxl4oCZcyB2YWx1ZSBpbiB3aGF0IHRoZXkgY2FuIG9mZmVyIG1lLCBzZW50aW1lbnRhbGl0eSBpcyBhIHdhc3RlIG9mIHRpbWUgYW5kIGVuZXJneSwgc3ltcGF0aHkgaXMgZm9yIHRoZSB3ZWFrLCBvYmplY3RpdmUgdGhpbmtpbmcgaXMgdGhlIG9ubHkgd2F5IHRvIHRoaW5rLiAgQmVjYXVzZSBvZiB0aGlzIGZhY3QsIEkgbGVhcm5lZCB0byB0ZWxsIHRoZSBkaWZmZXJlbmNlIGJldHdlZW4gcGVvcGxlIHdobyBhY3R1YWxseSB3aXNoIHRvIGJ1aWxkIGEgY29vcGVyYXRpdmUgcmVsYXRpb25zaGlwLCBwZW9wbGUgdGhhdCBJIGNhbiBtYW5pcHVsYXRlLCBmcm9tIHRoZSBwdXBwZXQgbWFzdGVycyBsaWtlIG15c2VsZi4gIEnigJltIGRvbuKAmXQgbWVhbiB0byBiZWNvbWUgc29tZW9uZeKAmXMgcGF3biwgSSBhbSBhIGtpbmcgYXMgd2VsbC4gIEkgbGVhcm5lZCBob3cgdG8gdHVuZSBvdXQgdGhlIHZvaWNlcyBpbiBteSBoZWFkIGFuZCBub3cgd2l0aCB0aGlzIG5ldyB3b3JsZCwgSSBjYW4gYWNxdWlyZSBzdWNjZXNzIGVhc2lseS4gIEkgd29u4oCZdCBoYXZlIHRvIHJlbHkgb24gYW55b25lIG9yIHdvcmsgb3ZlcnRpbWUsIEkgY2FuIGp1c3QgYmUgdGhlIGtpbmcgbXkgbW90aGVyIHdhbnRlZCBtZSB0byBiZS4gIFRoZSBraW5nIEkgd2FzIG1lYW50IHRvIGJlLCBubyBtb3JlIHNoYWxsIEkgc3VmZmVyLiAgTm8gbW9yZSBzaGFsbCBteSB3ZWFrIGJvZHkgYWxsb3cgbWUgdG8gY3J5IHdoZW4gSeKAmW0gYWxvbmUsIG5vIG1vcmUgd2lsbCB0aGUgc2NhcnMgaW4gbXkgaGVhcnQsIG1pbmQgYW5kIGJvZHkgYWNoZSwgSSBzaGFsbCBiZSBiZXR0ZXIgdGhhbiB0aGlzLCB3aGVuIEnigJltIGxpdmluZyBpbiByaWNoZXMgSSB3b27igJl0IG5lZWQgdG8gZmVlbCBwYWluIGFueW1vcmUu


	16. Test Drive

We were all silent as we walked through the forest that John marked. We searched for a tree with human characteristics, like a face, breathing or movement. Birds were chirping, the wind was blowing keeping us cool and refreshed, rabbits were hopping around. Everything seemed peaceful. We saw a bear near a river bank, catching salmon, nature was truly undisturbed in this place, unlike in the forests we had seven years ago, which we tainted with human intervention.

"John, are you sure we're in the right place? We've been walking for hours now." I asked irritated.

"Yes, it's just up ahead, I spotted it a few days before I met you." He sped up a bit as he walked towards the location of this supposed living wood tree.

"You were counting on finding people that would _willingly_ follow you into battle?" Audra said, clearly trying to get on John's nerves.

"I got _you_ to follow me." John mumbled loud enough for me to hear. Then he pointed at a tree. "That one! See, I told you I knew where it was." The tree seemed to be slowly expanding and then contracting, like it was breathing.

I walked closer to him and Audra, "So, how do we go about this John?"

John and I started discussing strategy as Audra walked past us. She stood in front of the tree and stared at it. She equipped her armor, very bulky covering her from head to toe, you couldn't even tell who was in the armor, the only visible thing were her eyes and her fingers. She then cocked her fist back and punched the tree with enough force to make it's leaves shake, some falling down. The fact that the tree seemed to be at least 30 feet high made the feat that much more impressive. The tree slowly began to creak as its roots unearthed themselves. A face formed on the side Audra was staring at and let loose a deafening screech.

Audra put herself in a defensive position and took the assault of several branches unfazed. I came out of my trance and channeled my greater chi into my legs, I ran and jumped at the tree, as I came down on it I moved all the Chi into my fist and hit it. The tree was knocked back several inches and screeched again. It's face moved to where I was and I could sense movement inside the tree, the mouth of the tree began opening wider. Audra jumped and grabbed me, she then locked herself into a position and her body became much heavier as it fell rapidly and dragged me along with her. An audible thump was heard when she touched the ground.

John smiled, "Audra, I hope you can tank some fire damage!" He snapped his fingers and a large tornado of flame appeared near the tree. The spinning flames began moving however and we were in the damage area.

"That pyromaniac!" I said to myself angrily. Audra was quick to react like always and ran, pulling me with her. We got as far as we could, but the flames were still too close for comfort, Audra placed her arms in an X in front of her and took the flames head on, keeping me behind her. When the attack faded I saw that Audra's health was nearly unscathed, she seemed to have grown skin colored scales, but perhaps it was my imagination because they slowly faded from view.

"Are you crazy!" I yelled at John, as I pulled out my sword, filled it with Chi and attacked the tree. He only smiled and continued his attack.

"I swear I will scare that boy straight!" Audra muttered under her breath. John simply cackled.

The tree had lost all interest in me and Audra and had focused on John now. Since he had dealt so much damage to it, the tree now viewed John as the most dangerous target. John was no longer laughing he was visibly screaming internally.  A vine came flying at John, and he made a small explosion in his hand which dealt with it. The tree then seemed to spit out many sharpened, thick branches and there was nothing John could do to stop them all. While he was visualizing death, Audra used the Chi I taught her and focused it onto her legs closing the 20 foot distance they had from each other in an instant. She placed herself into a defensive stance and all the branches broke as they hit her body. Her health did go down quite a bit this time, she lost about a third of health.

"Do you think I'm tough enough now, little man!?" She said angrily as John simply looked on in awe, thankful to still being alive. "Get yourself together and fight!" She whistled at the tree and started running away from John, managing to catch the tree's attention and simultaneously lead it away from John.

I kept slashing at the tree and John threw fireballs at it. When it was at critical health, John refrained from attacking, because if we killed the tree while it was taking fire damage the living wood would burn and leave us with nothing. Audra kept aggroing the tree to keep it off of us and I slashed at it as strongly as I could until it died. I smiled a bit, enjoying my victory and glad that we had received the precious living wood.

After the fight was over John walked up to Audra. "Look, I may have... said some things I shouldn't have said when we first met, but can we put it past us and work together from now on? I feel like you'd make a great addition to the party and you did just save my life." Well this is new, John is apologizing. _John._

Audra made a gesture to make it seem like she was pondering it greatly. "Fine, but I'm to be treated with respect or I won't save you next time, got it little man?" John reluctantly nodded and they shook hands. It's kinda funny that she called John little man even though he was the tallest one among us.

I was glad that they were able to put their differences aside, we really needed a Guardian with us and she proved her worth. I was then struck by curiosity, "What do you even need that wood for, John?"

He smiled. "You'll see. If it works we will be going out for a field test very soon." I think he was trying to be nice and suggest a new outing, but he made it sound very mysterious and sinister.

I looked at Audra and she simply shrugged.

I then crossed my arms, "So, you're joining our party then?"

She nodded. "You two are a mess, if I leave you with no one to protect you you'll probably kill yourselves accidentally." She snickered when she said that, "Plus, it's kinda fun, despite someone here being a little dismissive upon first impressions." She said that with a hint of hostility and glanced at John before laughing it off.

We all went back to the city, Audra was resting somewhere else so we said goodbye and parted ways, John and I going to our inn to rest for the night.


	17. Conflict?

The next day, I took a quick shower in the morning and went downstairs for breakfast, I grabbed a half pound of bread and filled it with just about every single meat dish I found. It had sausages, ham, bacon, salami and pastrami. It also had American cheese, Swiss cheese, mozzarella cheese, nacho cheese and Parmesan cheese. Additionally, it had eggs, mayonnaise, butter, potato chips, ketchup, Barbecue sauce, garlic and onions.

"I have never been so repulsed by you." I heard John say as he sat down with his cereal. "With such a heavy breakfast you'll spend the whole morning in the bathroom."

"My stomach is trained to do this every day." I kept eating, my wonderful sandwich being more important than John's stupid opinion.

"I have a hard time believing that." John continued munching on his cereal after adding that last comment. We were silent for the rest of the meal, John finished his cereal quickly then got apple juice for both of us. I finished and was about to take a drink from the orange juice when a cloth napkin hit me in the face.

"Clean your face, you have sauce all over your mouth and it is truly unsightly." John said scowling. I was about to retort, but realized some other players were also staring in bewilderment and disgust at the meal I just had and the leftovers on my face.

I cleaned my face. "Thanks." I said quietly and then drank the cup of orange juice as elegantly as I could. John snickered a bit under his breath, clearly amused by my momentary embarrassment. "Shut up." I said to him and his snicker turned in a full on cackle.

He laughed loudly for a while before finally regaining his composure. "Sorry, that was too loud. Excuse me." He stood up and left the table to go to the bathroom. I stood up as well and went to the temple where I had met Audra.

"Welcome back, young warrior." The monk said.

I waved, "Hi. Is there a place for me to raise my stats?"

He nodded and we were both teleported to a sort of gym. "The bench press is for strength and endurance training, the treadmill is dexterity and endurance." The monk said as he pointed at the stations. We were teleported to an archery range next. "Here is where you can train your wisdom." We were teleported once again, this time to the library. "And here you can increase your intelligence. Where would you wish to go?" The monk asked.

I thought about it for a bit before. "I want to increase my dexterity." I said at last and was teleported to the gym and next to the treadmill, this time the monk did not accompany me.

I ran on the treadmill and every 20 minutes my endurance went up by 2 and my dexterity went up by 1. After an hour of exercise it changed from every 20 minutes to every 40 minutes. I took a break from the treadmill, drank some water and started working on the bench press. Every 10 bench presses would grant me 1 strength and 1 endurance.

"System Announcement! Passive Bonus: Superhuman Speed and Agility: Your Dexterity stat has been raised to a point where you are superhuman. You clear Olympic speed or height records with the utmost of ease using just your natural ability. You can run faster than a car on the highway and have a standing vertical jump of 10 feet. You are also able to perform very precise movements, able to catch a fly by its wings and all without hurting it."

Skills Upgraded!  
Requirement(s) met:  
Superhuman Speed and Agility  
Skill(s) Upgraded:  
Fast strikes to Flash Punches: Combo in 10 instead of 8 punches and make them nearly impossible to dodge.

After 30 bench presses I decided to give it a rest and went back outside. It was just now the afternoon and the sun was scorching hot. I went back into town and showered back at the inn, suddenly a message from John arrived saying that he wanted to test something.

"System Announcement! Passive Bonus: Superhuman Strength and Grip: Your Strength stat has been raised to the point where you are a super human, you clear any weight lifting or grip strength records with relative ease. You can lift up to 1000 pounds approximately and your grip strength is strong enough to turn rocks to dust and fracture a human bone simply by squeezing."

Skill Upgraded!  
Requirement(s) met:  
Superhuman Strength and Grip.  
Skill(s) Upgraded:  
Heavy Strike to Quarter Ton Punch: your great strength has boosted your strongest punch to a sure death attack with over 500 pounds of force.

I tapped the windows away and focused on finding John. I went to where he set his pin. It was a dense forest area with trees as tall and wide as skyscrapers.

"John?" I yelled out. My yell echoed and was then followed by silence. Suddenly, a bolt of lightning came down from the sky and onto me. It burned me, my skin became scorched and many purple lines in the shape of lightning bolts appeared on my body. My health went down to about 60% and I was stunned for about 2 seconds.

As soon as the stun effect was gone I channeled chi into my legs and ran around, searching for my attacker. Several more lightning bolts came down, but due to my speed it was very hard for my opponent to aim. As I was running I then heard fingers snap and a giant tornado of fire appeared in front of me. I turned as best as I could and ran in the direction of where I heard the fingers snap. I saw some movement in a tree branch in that direction. I sped towards that tree and equipped my sword. When I was close enough I jumped, twenty feet into the air, moved the chi to my sword and cut the thick branch.

"Ahhh!" I heard a voice yell as the branch its owner was standing on fell.

I moved the Chi onto my legs and landed softly as the branch crashed into the ground. I saw a very familiar staff with two dragons on the tip being pointed at my face.

"John. If you wanted to kill me you'll have to try harder than that." I glared at him.

"I wasn't trying to kill you." he said coughing and panting trying to catch his breath, his staff out in front of him, trying to keep a certain distance between us.

I looked at him seriously. "I'll give you one chance to explain yourself."

"I needed to test out my magical abilities on someone strong and fast. I couldn't ask Audra because she might decide to leave the party and I don't like her, so I asked the only other person I know, you."

"Couldn't you have told me the specifications of your test." I asked him still unsure.

"Nope. If I did the results would not be reliable. There's one more thing though. Heal up."

If he really wanted to kill me he wouldn't tell me to heal up before an attack. So I let out a sigh and complied. Then he blew into the back of his staff, the mouth of the dragon with ruby eyes started glowing. On the other hand, the dragon with the yellow gems on it's eyes started emitting this weird noise, like a constant hum. Suddenly, the dragons spat fire and electricity and my health this time was taken down to 25% as I took the damage and was also stunned by the lightning.

"Ugh!" I grunted in pain when I was no longer stunned. I drank a potion and began to catch my breath. -What was that.

John smiled at his staff then at me. "That, my little lab rat, was a successful experiment."


	18. Coliseum

I decided to let John off with a simple punch to the back of the head. Even after what he did he still wanted to test it out a bit more so he asked Audra to meet with us at a restaurant to discuss what we would do over lunch. I must say John was not as cheap as he looks, he took us to an Mexican restaurant, the seats were a wine color, the tables a very dark maroon. The restaurant staff wore a dark green apron, white dress shirt and black pants. The lighting was very elegant and added a touch of calmness. We were received cordially at the door and guided to our table. The waiter asked us what we would have as drinks and after we ordered those he handed us the menu and walked away. John explained to Audra that he wanted to test out his staff's ability and that he couldn't afford to kill anyone so he needed to try it on her.

"I am not gonna let you assault me simply to satisfy your curiosity!" Audra yelled at John.

"Come on! It is for the benefit of the party as a whole!" He said in a slightly persuading, slightly whiny tone.

"No, you're just an arsonist." She crossed her arms, closed her eyes and turned her face so as to not look at him.

John gasped dramatically. "That is completely uncalled for!" It looked like another fight was about to be unleashed.

I sighed. "Wait a minute. Before we start bickering in the middle of this restaurant let's think rationally. For one, John, you yourself must know that at the very least you have some tendencies that would make others believe you are a pyromaniac."

He sighed and then muttered to himself. "I'm not a bad person. Fire is pretty. That's it."

"As for Audra," I turned to face her "there is a way for him to test his abilities without directly attacking you, but we still need you to be there." They both looked at me quizzically, so I continued. "I did a little bit of searching in the request forum and found something interesting."

I was interrupted as our waiter brought our drinks and then took our orders. We decided to skip the appetizers and head straight into the main course. John ordered a chicken quesadilla and Audra and I ordered a large three meat burrito. After we were all done, I decided to tell them about my findings.

"So, while I was investigating I found that in safe zones there is a place called the Coliseum. Here, players fan fight each other either on one on one matches or team matches ranging from 2 members per team to 8 members per team. Although you can bring the opposing team's life to zero points, they don't die and are actually transported out of the arena and into the stands to watch the match. The matches can be played either for sport or players can put items on the line." They both listened carefully, clearly intrigued. "If we participate in this Coliseum, John could test his ability against other players without putting their lives at risk. Audra could see how we fight other players when we steal kills or such. I could get to test out my new speed and agility and we could gain a few items if we win in a betting match." They both nodded in agreement. Our food just happened to arrive and we all began to eat

John finished his quesadilla, "Well then, I suppose our next order of business as a party is to participate in this Coliseum."

Audra nodded, "I must also agree."

We all stood up, paid the check and left a tip and then we left. As we were walking I noticed I still had two skill points left to use. I looked at my skill tree and just randomly chose where to put my skill points. The first one went into a combo skill called "Blindside" which allowed me to almost instantaneously move to my opponents back after finishing a combo with my high speed. The next point went into a buff skill called "Limit Breaker" which allowed me to break the limit my muscles have and be able to exert much more force than normal. This ability allows me to augment the strength and resistance of all my muscles thus creating. However, it can only be used for 10 seconds, if it is used for more than that my muscles would begin to tear. After I use it, it requires double the time that I used it for to cool down. I equipped Chi as my first buff, at this point that's fairly obvious, and equipped Limit Breaker as my second one, if I used it in short bursts at a time I could improve my skills greatly without injury and in quick succession.

We arrived at the Coliseum and queued up for a 3 man team battles. We met with a group of guys, one was easily identifiable as a mage, his name read Gabe, he wore a dark robe with arcane markings and held a wooden staff that didn't look made for fighting. One wore a hood to cover his face and black leather armor on his torso and legs; strapped to each side of him were three daggers. He was most likely a Thief, his name was Abraham. Lastly, the person who approached first had light leather armor with purple cloth underneath, on his torso and legs, his arms and head he left unprotected. The man looked like he could get hit by a truck and survive with how big his muscles are. His legs, arms, back and torso were like a super soldier and his hands were big enough to cover a basketball completely with one hand. This one was named William.

William smiled, "We would like to discuss the specifics of this match with your team."

I stepped forward for my team, "Let's hear it."

"We will be offering three enchanted items as this match's bounty. These are Boots of Quickening, The Crown of The Scholar and The Vampiric Chestplate."

John looked curious, "What do these items do?"

"No further information will be provided. Now what can you offer in exchange?" He wore the most smug arrogant smile I had ever seen. The hell is wrong with this dude, honestly.

I felt slightly annoyed at his arrogant tone. "Well, I can provide a Gladius infused with lightning, a staff with the ability to shoot out lightning and fire and some witch tree branches."

The man in front of me pondered it for a while, "I feel like we're not getting as much as we're offering. Tell you what, throw in the girl back there and we have a deal." His teammates snickered along with him. Audra looked like she was about to explode in anger.

John spoke to her and managed to calm her down, she took a deep breath. "Fine. I'm in." She then muttered something under her breath that sounded like misogynist pig followed by some rated R language. 

William smiled and extended his hand outwards to seal the deal. I smiled back and shook his hand. Suddenly we were transported to opposite sides of an arena inside the Coliseum. A countdown appeared in the air between my team and the other one. 3, 2, 1. Start!


	19. Trolls

I activated Chi and Limit Breaker and ran across the arena, kicking up a huge amount of sand behind me. Within a second I had traveled the 50 feet separating us and punched their mage into the wall behind him. I stopped Limit Break and Tornado Kicked their Assassin. He fell and then ran away, when he was about to chug a potion a lightning bolt came down from the sky and finished him off. I was then grabbed and near my crotch and under my leg, suddenly my feet were no longer touching the floor and the world spun as I hit the ground. I saw the leader of the enemy team feed the mage a potion and pull him out of the wall. The mage then began throwing balls of energy at me and I dodged as best I could while I tried to get back up. Suddenly a pair of hands grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the trajectory of the spells and up to my feet.

The mage started to throw the balls of light at my savior, Audra, but she extended her right arm forward, palm facing forward and blocked the spells with her palm. When the spells were about to touch her they dispersed. The mage was just as confused as I was but he didn't get too much time to be confused before a stream of fire and lightning hit him and the brawler. The mage died and the brawler tried to run away and drink a potion. I once again activated Limit Break and reached him as he drank from the glass. I hit him with my fast combo and then blindsided him. It felt as if my body moved on it's own and slid in the air until I reached his back. I activated lightning palm and hit him with it straight on back. His body tensed up slightly as he was shocked and stunned. I was about to finish him off, but Audra tapped my shoulder and slightly shoved me aside. William had just regained movement, but Audra grabbed him by an ankle and then proceeded to recreate the scene in the Avengers where The Hulk beats up Loki. I'll give you a hint, William was Loki, and he did not have fun.

The word "Winners!" appeared in front of us in text that changed color and we were teleported outside. The items the enemy team had offered were given to me. I gave John the Crown of The Scholar which apparently boosted his intelligence. Then I looked at the other two items, read their description and thought for a bit.

I looked at Audra and suddenly came to a sudden realization, "Hey Audra, don't you have a weapon?"

She then looked back at me and shook her head. "Not really, I just use whatever I find lying around. If not, my fists and takedown knowledge is enough to defend myself, why?"

I read the description of the armor again before I spoke."Well, it's just that this armor says that as the enemy's blood splatters onto the chest plate, the user gains health back. So I was just thinking that if you had a slicing weapon or something, you could use this and become this regenerating super tank. I mean, you barely take damage on the field so if you had something to help you regain what little health you lose, you'd be absolutely unstoppable."

She put her hand to her chin and stared off into the distance, "Alright. I'll consider getting a weapon soon. I'll take the armor then."

I gave her the armor and I took the boots. I changed my normal boots for the boots of quickening. I didn't feel any change, my walking speed was the same and all. When I tried to start running however, the boots started glowing with a white transparent energy and I was moving almost as if I had been using Chi. I think I was running at least at 90 miles per hour. I ran back and John and Audra looked at me like I was a weirdo, they then just shook their heads and we walked back into town to find Audra a weapon. Before we were able to reach town, we were suddenly invited into a chat room. So this is how you communicate with strangers? Not a messaging system but a chat room. We were all a bit confused, but decided to join anyways.

It was the guys we just met. What ensued was very profane language and lots of violent threats, almost every sentence ended with either the word for a female dog or an offensive way to refer to a homosexual man. What follows is the messages while eliminating the profanity used.

William: I hate you. You are cheating! Hacks! Kill yourself! Your daddy didn't love you did he?

Audra and I spoke the same words in a synchronized manner, "Internet Trolls."

Best thing to with these guys is to ignore them.

John: Hahaha you sore loser, how about this? We have a rematch, if you win, you get all your loot back and the loot we offer. If you lose, you must tell us where you found this loot and if there is more left. Deal?

William: You got it!

Audra and I looked at John and spread out my arms in disbelief. "Why did you do that!?"

He looked at us with an arrogant look on his face, as if it was completely obvious to anyone why he did that. "Well, if they had those materials, they might know where to get more. If we get enchanted items we get stronger faster. If we get stronger faster, than we can go to higher level and higher reward dungeons quicker too."

We both looked at John and then I analyzed what he had just said. I sighed, "Well as much as I hate to admit it, you're right. Nice work, John."

We met up at the Coliseum again, the players looking very angry at us. We agreed to the terms of the battle and were transported to the arena. As soon as the battle started, their mage began casting a complex spell. I activated Chi and Limit Break as I rushed towards them but this time their assassin stopped me. They were ready this time, the Thief had a very fast step as well, he pulled out a gun in front of me and aimed it at my head. I freaked out and accidentally hit his gun arm, diverting the shot. I then used lightning palm to stun him and activated my fast strikes combo and then blindsided him. I deactivated limit break as I got behind him, pulled out my Gladius and slashed him for the final blow.

Meanwhile, I noticed their Mage was pointing a large beam of energy, akin to that of a death ray or an energy blast in a comic or manga at Audra and John. Audra suddenly lift her foot and stomped down, The ground beneath her foot cracked, the earth shook and we were all shaken with it. The mage's attack had been interrupted as he also stumbled. Audra then closed in on him and held him in place defenseless, using him as a sort of meat shield as John grabbed the guy's face and burned it off.

I had also stumbled and ended up falling when Audra made the ground shake. When I could stand again I rushed the other team's leader trusting that Audra and John could handle the mage. I reached William and activated Limit Break. My fist connected with his, however he took more damage than I did. I tried to Tornado Kick him, but he ducked and grabbed my other leg. He raised me up and slammed me into the ground behind him like a German Suplex. He then moved and performed a weird submission hold on me and choked me. I saw my health slowly go down. I focused all my chi into my arms and forcefully loosened his hold on me. I deactivated Limit Break and rushed to my feet as did my opponent. I moved as close as possible, equipped my Gladius and thrust the sword into his eye. Objects moving closer to the eye seem faster than they really are, he'll also close his eye reflexively to protect it instead of trying to avoid the attack. Just as planned, I managed to hit him. He covered his eye and yelled in pain, I then grabbed my sword by the blade, half swording style, and hit him with the pommel on the chin as hard as I could. He stumbled backwards and then fell, since getting hit on the chin can cause disorientation and dizziness. I moved all the chi to my right leg as I lifted my leg as high as it could go, like and axe kick, and brought it down on his face. The match was over.

 


	20. Fort

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's more art for the previous chapters available in my tumblr. It showcases William, Abraham and Gabe in their battle attire.

The match was over now. We were teleported outside once again with the message winner in colorful text in front of us. The enemy team had sent a message saying that they found the equipment in a dungeon and they even marked it on our map. I guess the Coliseum makes it so that everyone has to abide by it's rules because as soon as we got out, they started texting us profanities and insults again. This time we would ignore them as they were no use to us.

We headed back into town to buy Audra a worthy weapon. We walked around until we found a weapons shop, she should have a close range weapon since she is our tank, I was thinking she would buy a sword or greatsword, but she walked up to an unrealistically big hammer. The handle was steel, six feet long and the head was 3 feet in diameter and iron, it didn't look special at all other than a small cursive design on it which was purely ornamental and the fact that the part used to dig out nails with in a regular hammer was more of a giant spike; perhaps the cursive design was blacksmith's trademark. It was easily over the 200 pound and honestly, I was expecting it to bend and break within the first time she swung the thing. Hell, now that I look at it closer it seems far more likely to be closer to the 300 pounds.

"How about this?" She smiled and kept her eyes locked onto it, clearly satisfied with her decision.

I glanced at her, then the hammer, then back at her, "Are you sure? It looks very heavy..."

She turned her head and gave me a threatening look, "Are you insinuating something, punk?" She then bent down and raised the hammer. She didn't seem strong enough to swing it around like a madman, but she was still able to lift it up and rest it on her shoulder. "You were saying?"

I was nervous, if I said the wrong thing, I don't know if I'll survive her wrath, "Yeah, I'm sorry for doubting you. How about I take it to the register for you though? Not because you're weak or anything, but just out of the goodness of my heart."

She gave me wary look, clearly suspicious of my tone and choice of words, however her expression softened, "Sure." She then tossed me the hammer which I caught with both hands, I then realized I was an idiot in doing so as I fell forward and almost killed myself on the hammer's spike. After I regained my composure, I lifted the darned thing back up. It was actually quite heavy but nothing I couldn't handle, my passive bonus made it quite easy to hold this. I carried it to the counter and Audra paid for it. Audra went to a nearby Gym and raised her strength to superhuman levels so she could wield the hammer better. After a while she came out and grabbed the hammer out of my head, gave it a light twirl and held it. I smiled, her overconfidence was well earned and entertaining to watch. "Show off". She laughed and with that we left town.

We walked together in silence, I could see Audra and John being quite busy with their eyes so I suppose they were messing with their inventory or skills or stats. I then checked my inventory as well, I looked at the items we had gotten across the multiple animals we killed and such, I saw rhinoceros horns, fire powder, armor, my Gladius, my Shield, Pantera Powder and a Rapier. I read the description for the Pantera powder and found out that it releases a smell that leads animals to it, so that's why I smelled cinnamon when we fought it. I then looked at the Rapier, it looked interesting, it seemed lighter, I might consider changing to it later.

I returned my vision to where we were walking and noticed that we were in some familiar plains with small hills. The Hunting Plains, I thought to myself and the map labeled it as such. I kept walking and saw another Pantera. I tapped John and Audra on the shoulder and pointed at it, then I punched my own hand. They understood and we headed towards the large feline.

It yawned and opened it's mouth, a sweet smell came out again which made some small animals came out of hiding and essentially hop into its mouth. It swallowed and then strolled away. Before it got away I initiated combat. I activated Chi and Limit Break and moved the chi into my legs as I ran towards it, jumped and guillotine kicked it's head as hard as I could. It stumbled forward and almost fell, when it's head was close enough to the ground I ran and used a combo on its face. The last of my heavy strikes was hard enough to knock it back a bit. I honestly felt kinda bad for hitting it so hard, it's health however made me think otherwise, as it only went down by an eighth. It tried to swipe at me, but I was faster and went in between its legs and came out behind him.

Audra stopped me and gave me a reassuring pat. As the Pantera turned around, she lifted her hammer and smashed it hard on its unsuspecting face. While it tried to recover, John ran up, which was surprising given that he usually stays in the back, and stuck his hand into the beast's left eye and burned it until it shriveled up and fell. The beast howled and roared in pain.

Audra tossed her hammer in my direction, I caught it and looked back at her confused. "Throw it back to me!"

She jumped up using the chi I taught her and held her hand out. I grabbed the hammer like a javelin, channeled chi into my arm and threw it as accurately as I could. It strayed a bit off target, but Audra still managed to grab it. She held it above her head and she started falling. I turned off Limit Break as my muscles started to ache a bit. I now needed a 14 second cooldown. Her body suddenly began falling even faster as she swung down her hammer on the beast's head. "Killer Move: Iron Drop!" The beast then fell down, staggered. I don't know what that was and by the looks of it, neither did John, but it was effective.

I then ran as fast as I could and filled my Gladius with chi to make the Aura Blade. I stuck the blade into the beast's right eye and sliced it across the beast's face to the right. With the beast blinded the battle was more of a massacre than a battle. We managed to overpower the beast to the point no one got hurt so that was a bonus. We continued to walk through the field, eventually heading through a small forest. As we walked, I recalled the previous events, specifically what happened during the climax of our battle. "Hey, Audra? If you don't mind me asking, what was that whole Iron Drop thing?"

She suddenly stopped and tensed up, "Oh that..?" She chuckled nervously, "I was having so much fun I forgot you guys were there and I decided to yell out my skill's name. You know, like how the protagonist of a manga or a character in a fighting game does."

John snorted and was about to laugh, but Audra's death glare warned him otherwise, making him cough, wheeze as he desperately tried to contain his laughter. I couldn't contain myself any longer though and laughed. "You're so geeky."

She subsequently punched me in the arm and glared at me, "Watch it, boy!"

I rubbed my arm and chuckled, "I didn't say it was a bad thing." She gave me a judging look before simply turning away, still somewhat offended, evoking further laughter from me.

"Get a room!" I heard John yell behind me before cackling.

I rolled my eyes at him and Audra showed him the finger. We walked in silence the rest of the way. Finally, we arrived at a clearing. There was large fort that looked mostly modern in the middle of the forest, trees surrounded this fort, but left a good 10 feet in diameter between the fort and the rest of the forest. I looked at the fort and then at the map and saw that this was indeed the place. The walls were built in black stone bricks, the top of these had barbed wire to prevent anyone from getting in. The fort was easily 100 feet long and 30 feet wide, the only way in was through a metal, sliding gate. In front of said gate, were two armed guards with high powered rifles. They weren't players, these were the enemies.


	21. Guns

"Oh great. Men with guns. Hooray." The sarcasm was more for my own sanity than for anyone else.

John rolled his eyes, "Oh don't be such a drama king, you can just knock them out before they pull the trigger."

I was nervous, but I nodded. I activated Chi and Limit Break and put everything into my legs. I ran towards the gate and then to the guard to my right and grabbed his gun, I quickly shot the other guard and dodged away from the gate in case he managed to get a shot off. The other guard reached for his stun gun and I got nervous, so I threw the gun I was holding at his face and broke his nose. I may have slightly panicked, I didn't know if I had to reload the gun or something before shooting so I just threw it, okay? I could hear John cackling and Audra snickered. I sighed and deactivated Limit Break.

Audra tried to stifle her laughter as she approached me, "Why did you do that?"

I faced her and raised my arms up angrily, "I panicked okay! It's a gun! He was gonna shoot me!" I was trying find an argument that would justify my previous reaction.

Audra shrugged, "So? You're fast enough, you can probably dodge it."

I crossed my arms. "Look, I'm fast okay? I get it, but that doesn't directly imply that I can see things in slow motion or something!"

Audra rolled her eyes, "I know, but you should be able to see them a bit. I mean, haven't you leveled your wisdom to about 20?"

I checked my stats again, did I ever raise my wisdom?

...

I looked at her, not knowing if I should pronounce the next words. "My wisdom is 7..."

She stared for a second and blinked, processing the information before her. "But isn't 10 the average? Doesn't  that mean your eyesight and senses are below average?" I remained silent. She then looked at me with pity, great. "Oh boy, this world must be so scary for you, huh? You probably can't even see what's happening when you're moving that fast." Her eyes than began to glow, "I kinda wanna see you run into something!"

John walked over and gave me a harsh slap on the back, "Hey, for all we know he might secretly be deaf." He snickered at his own joke. "You probably sucked at sports, am I right?" He continued to snicker.

He gets on my nerves so much already, but whenever he acts like an a-hole it makes me wanna punch him in the face. "Shut up man! Nobody asked for your opinion!" I crossed my arms angrily. The only reason as to why I haven't punched him across that stupid face of his yet is because I need him.

....

On my team.

That was a weird thought and it's stopping right there.

I shook my head and came back to real world, then I sighed defeated, remembering the situation I was in and the fact that they're still laughing. "Okay I get it, I'm as blind as a star nosed mole or something and I need to put my points into wisdom, can we please stop making fun of me and move on now?"

Audra snickered and finally stopped her laughing, "Sure."

John did the same and then cleared his throat loudly, "Yeah."

We headed into the fort like dungeon and opened the front gate. There was a long walkway delimited by steel, chain-link fences and there were several watch towers along the sides of it.

I reached into my inventory and pulled out both the guns I found and two boxes of ammo, "Here, you two take down the left side towers I'll take down right side." They nodded in agreement and I ran in the other direction.

I moved the Chi into my legs and sped to where the watch towers were, I jumped to the first of three and elbowed the guard as I took his gun. I covered his mouth and stabbed him in the gut as he let out a small groan and died.

"Special Skill Unlocked! Assassination: overpower your foe in speed and strength to kill them quietly."

I jumped back down and sped to the next tower. As I did, I heard gunshots, the whoosh of flames and bullets hitting something that seemed to be made out of metal. Seems like those two have started working.

When I jumped up to the next tower I noticed that this time the guard was facing away from me and I covered his mouth before stabbing him in the back and dragging my blade up.

"Special Skill Unlocked! Sneak Attack: If your opponent is facing away from you and is not yet aware of your presence, swiftly attack him dealing tremendous damage."

I've got two nice skills now, they'll be great for scouting and getting in and out type missions. I grabbed the guard's gun and ran to the next tower. I jumped in and tried shooting the guard but the gun wouldn't shoot. I kept trying to figure out how to work the gun before I gave up and grabbed it by the barrel to swing it at the guard's head as a bat.

Level Up!

I put my two stat points into wisdom to get it that bit closer to average. As for the skill point, I put it into unseen strikes, a skill which takes advantage of my speed to deliver 4 punches to my opponent faster than the average human eye can react to. I wonder how well this would work against enemies that have better than average eyesight like Audra or John, well not like that's gonna come up anytime soon, hopefully.

I also noticed there were three stray skill points I hadn't assigned, apparently I had forgotten one skill point since the first dungeon and two after killing the electromancer. I put one into The Spinning Heel Kick in Tae Kwon Do, one went for a skill called Afterimage and one went for a skill called Fantasy martial arts moves: Launching Kick. Afterimage was using my speed and the imperfections of the human mind to fool my opponent into thinking I'm standing at some place, when in reality I've already moved and their mind hasn't registered it yet. I don't think it makes total sense but hey, I'm not complaining. Launching Kick is not a realistic Tae Kwon Do move but it utilizes leg strength to launch my opponent into the air.

"Skill Upgraded: Unseen Strikes has been upgraded to Invisible Blows. Requirement(s) met:  
Superhuman Dexterity. 

Specifics: Your superhuman speed and agility allows you to land 6 instead of 4 unseen strikes and they have become so fast that even those with advanced reflexes and senses would have a hard time dodging and seeing these strikes."

I jumped off the tower, this time towards the inside of the prison and jumped over the chain link fence.

I jogged my way over to them, "All good?" I gave a thumbs up and waited for their response.

John scoffed, "No thanks to you, if it wasn't because Audra blocked the bullets from your side we would've been dead."

I thought I was pretty speedy, didn't think they were getting shot at, "Sorry about that, I thought I could take them on by myself pretty quickly."

Audra sighed and slapped me in the back, "It's fine, no one got hurt. Next time however, know your limits and stay within them. Otherwise either you or John or even I might get hurt."

I nodded and apologized once more before we all headed towards the large door to the fort in front of us. John and I stood at the sides of the door and Audra in the middle, John and I would open the door and if enemies came to attack us, they would attack our tank. We opened the door and saw a reception area, in the back of the poorly lit room were stairs and armed guards pointed their guns at Audra. Audra crossed her arms and yelled, "Iron Guard!", which served to amuse John and I; as she tanked the bullets, they smacked her straight on but fell on the floor, dented and misshapen. John inhaled deeply, when he finally exhaled a large amount of black smoke came out, creating a literal smoke screen.

The guards began firing in random directions and we took advantage of the situation and traveled with Audra covering us. Those bullets took down about a tenth of her health, though none penetrated her skin. We crouched down beside the stairs where they wouldn't see us until they were already to close. The first Guard came around and Audra held him in a submission lock as John burned his face. At the sound of his comrade screaming, the other Guard came running towards us and was caught off guard by me when I slashed his throat with my Gladius. He made a small gurgling noise before he finally fell down and died.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so, to celebrate the 20th official chapter, meaning 20th chapter if we exclude the prologue and the chapter that's been encoded, the next chapter will 20 chapters will feature best boy John Lee as the protagonist. I hope you enjoyed.


	22. New Perspective and Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this will be told from John's perspective.

This might be confusing but where did we leave off? Oh right, I'm essentially breaking into a prison with a blind know it all and an indestructible comic geek. We're getting shot at by guards and the only person fast enough to head into battle and dodge all the bullets has less than average eyesight, while the rest of us have above average vision and reflexes.

Honestly, he is proving to be more of a nuisance than an advantage, I can't let him know that though, gotta keep the game face on. As long as he starts improving his abilities he'll prove useful to me again which is everything I require. I heard one of the gunmen coming down the stairs and activated the pyromancy spell burning touch.

I grabbed his face and he began screaming as his face started burning off, he squirmed and tried to pull my hand off him, but I held on as tightly as I could.

The next guard would obviously come down the stairs to help his comrade and knowing Ethan, he would take care of him. As I thought of this Ethan sped by beside me and slashed the guard's throat, a bit overkill if you ask me but a necessary level of violence. My own guard stopped fighting back and his face had burned off leaving mostly bone instead with a few specks of burnt, shriveled up skin. The smoke in the room finally faded and I let go of my guard as he dropped dead on the floor.

Audra led the way, her skills allowed her to harden her body from what I could tell and even if she didn't harden her body she had a tremendous amount of health. She walked up the stairs and checked the corners of the room, I was half expecting her to shout some weird special move's name again and mentally laughed to myself about it. She would absolutely kill me if she found out, kinda reminds me of another woman in my life who would murder me if I bad mouthed her.

We saw no more guards until we reached the cell block for the general population(genpop). The Jail Cells were closed and there were actual inmates in them, holding makeshift shanks. There was a large wide space in the middle leading to further inside the prison, on the sides there were four vertical levels of prisoners. They wore the stereotypical orange jumpsuits. The strangest thing was the expressions on their faces, smiling and smirking, energetically jittering around.

Then the little voice in my head appeared, "They're hiding something".

Audra looked around, glancing at every cell, "Think any of them have loot in their cells? Cause in TV shows and such the inmates always hide weapons or drugs and just stuff they shouldn't have on their person or in their cells."

Ethan mused the idea, "Could be, if so then we should find the controls to their cells and let them out so we can take them on one at a time or 3 at a time."

The voice in my head spoke again, "That's not what they're hiding."

I wanted to add the reasoning behind my thoughts, "I don't think so, if they did have enchanted items like the ones we saw, wouldn't they be able to take out the guards and escape? It wouldn't even have to be all of them, just a few of them with high grade items would be enough."

"It's a trap. Get out now." The voice in my head was frantic.

I looked at them both in the eyes, "This is a trap meant to lure us players into treading the room or fight them to then unleash them on us at once."

Ethan gave me a strange look, "You're very talkative today, but what you're saying isn't untrue."

I was slightly annoyed by his comment, "The only reason I'm so talkative is because this is so obviously a trap."

I try not to talk unless spoken to, is that such a crime? I better keep my mouth shut though, don't need to add opinions when no one is asking for them.

I could almost feel as the other disembodied voice in my head began to smirk, "Good boy."

Ethan decided to walk regardless and I followed. I made sure to drop flasks with the fire pillar trap just in case it truly was a ruse.

I started to sweat a bit, I'm not scared of fighting but this suspense is killing me, "Kyle, if this leads us into a trap I'm taking half your loot." I waited for his reaction with a smile.

He frowned, "My name is..." He then facepalmed and dragged his hand down his face. "Never mind."

I snickered, more to put on a farce and soothe my nerves than anything else. I honestly don't care, as long as I get powerful it doesn't matter how bumpy the road is. Even if I die, who cares? There won't even be a body to bury most likely, not like anyone would come to the funeral anyways.

Once more the disembodied voice appeared, "It's better that way, otherwise you'd just be a nuisance."

I shook my head to get that thought out of my mind and kept walking as suddenly an alarm went off and the distinct sound of many jail cells opening. Maybe I should've argued a bit more against simply walking through.

"You're always making poor decisions in judgment. You never learn, do you?" I sighed and tried to ignore it.

Not the best time to be honest. I turned towards Ethan, but he had already disappeared. There were two inmates on each side of me running at me. I spun my staff around me and hit them with the gold colored ball. One of them dodged and stabbed me as he smiled and cackled.

An inexplicable rage took over me and I essentially shoved the two dragons into his mouth and made it shoot fire and lightning at him. His head had been replaced by smoke and ashes. The next few inmates got up. They were surrounding me and getting to close for comfort. I had an idea pop into my head, a bad one, but an idea nonetheless. I could possibly die trying this.

"Not like your life really matters anyway, play the gamble." We finally agree on something.

I summoned the flame vortex in such a way that I would be standing at the center of it. As I thought, just like a hurricane or tornado the eye allows you to stand inside without taking any damage, and the walls immediate to the eye are very strong which meant I had a great barrier between me and the outside world.

"Special Skill Unlocked! Moving Fire Barricade: summon a moving vortex of flame around you to seal yourself off from the outside world."

The inmates all backed away and I heard some of them scream. Audra suddenly jumped through the flames hysterically and calmed down when she saw me unharmed.

She then glared at me. "You suicidal maniac," she screamed, "You had me worried there for a second! You could've asked for help!"

This is interesting, It's been so long since I've seen someone so genuinely concerned about me.I feel tingly and strange. I feel like I want to hide.

The voice's tone changed a to a more stern and strict one, "Hold it in, don't show weakness."

I looked down slightly to hide my face, "I'm sorry." She sighed and left the vortex of flames. I couldn't force myself to make a snide remark about how much she loved me nor could I force myself to tease and flirt with her the way I normally do. I turned away and covered myself with the hood of my robe, this way no one could see my weakness as it poured from my eyes.

"Your weakness is disgusting. It's not the first time she tries to protect you." I ignored the negative voice in the back of my head. It knew nothing. This time was different, this time she wasn't just protecting me, someone was genuinely worried about me. I heard a chuckle in the back of my mind, "Say whatever you like, you're still a pathetic drama king"

I kept fighting on, throwing fireballs and shooting lightning and fire from my twin dragons staff, all the while my face remained hidden behind my hood.


	23. Fun

I looked at the blue magic bar to the upper left of my vision and saw that it was still rather full. I pointed the staff at my hand and made a fireball, with the staff I focused to change the fireball's properties in order to cast the spell I got at the last level up. I threw it up into the air and it hovered, then it started shooting smaller, bullets of fire down in every direction indiscriminately.

I saw Audra level up in the background, she quickly retreated to deal with moving her stats around and unlocking skills. To return her previous concern, I ran towards her and defended her a best as I could. I fought using the staff's ball to whack my enemies and using burning touch.

I felt a pat on my shoulder and was pulled back as Audra stood and flipped the guys one way and the other like ragdolls. At one point she grabbed one by the leg and spun around using him as a weapon. Honestly, her brute strength is very disturbing to me.

On the other side of the spectrum, there was the flash wannabe zooming around and dropping people left and right.

Audra, although not on the same level was pretty fast too as she started rounding them up in the center of the room. When she had gathered around 10 of them I used flame vortex to take them out. The few that survived I took care of with some Homing Magic Shots, to waste as little magic power as I could to finish off the weakened ones. I checked my inventory and saw that they only dropped their overalls and some shanks made out of toothbrushes.

Ethan and I leveled up again, I opened the menu quickly and got the next pyromancy spell, Flame Strikes. The spell allows me to use flames in my attacks to extend their range and deal fire damage. It's a combat, quick cast spell, meaning it's meant to be used in combat multiple times, like burning touch, fireball and fire breath. That reminds me, vortex is a large scale field spell, it can be cast quickly but needs a large cooldown time. Lastly, fire rain and great eruption are preparation spells, they require preparation before use, I sort of cheat with great eruption by preparing the spells and placing them in flasks before battle. I'll think about what I can do for fire rain.The enemies were dealt with and no magical loot was found.

I put on my game face and walked casually up to them before leaning on my staff, "Where do you think the magic items could be?"

Ethan scratched his head, "No idea, warden's office? Security Guard Lounge Room?"

Audra crossed her arms and looked down in deep thought, "Maybe in the belongings section? You know, the room where prisoners leave the clothes and belongings they had when they were incarcerated?"

Me and Ethan suddenly looked at each other, then at her and then looked down in thought. I shrugged, "It makes sense to me."

Ethan nodded in agreement, "It does, nice work. If you don't mind my asking, how did you think of that?"

Audra shrugged, "I watch a lot of TV shows. What? Did you think I spend all my time on buying clothes or thinking about what to wear? There's quite a lot you boys don't know about me." She smiled, clearly teasing us that information and leaving us wanting to find out more was very entertaining for her.

We searched all of the rooms one by one and found nothing. The rest of the prison was largely empty with a few guards that Ethan took care of quickly. We reached the place where the belongings were at and opened the door. A large man in an orange jumpsuit was stood there, he looked at us but didn't do anything, simply followed us with his eyes. He was tall and fit like the Great Khali and had blonde, short hair with green eyes.

Ethan waved his hands at him and the man didn't react but as soon as Ethan took a step inside the room, the man came running at him and tried to grab him. His hand however went through Ethan and then he was launched forward towards us. Suddenly, Ethan was standing behind him and ready to attack.

He jumped up and as he fell down he put his hands together and swung them down as he yelled "Half Ton Crush". The geek made the nerd join her. I didn't so much need to see as I felt Audra gleam with approval next to me. How can something so stupid and simple make someone that happy? Is that all it takes?

"Focus on what's in front of you, moron." I shook my head and complied. I need to focus.

Audra jumped into the fray as well and they began beating the man together, I actually felt kinda bad for the enemy in this scenario. They sure were having fun, they kept on shouting the names of their skills like idiots. I wonder what it feels like though.

"Don't. Don't do it. Stop." I ignored tje thought.

I punched the air and fire came out from my fist, this is that flame strikes technique, reminds me of that animated show with the four elements and the kid with arrows.

Audra was holding the guy still as Ethan punched him. I ran up and thought of something on the spot.

"The idea is smart, the name shouting isn't. Don't."I ignored the voice in my head and went along with my plan.

I punched his abdomen with flame strike, I could feel the heat of the flames inside his body as it burned him from the inside out.

"Don't say it!" It reminded me.

"Spontaneous Human Combustion!"I yelled as the man bent over and erupted into flames.

Special Skill Unlocked! Spontaneous Human Combustion: Use Flame Strikes and strike your opponent dead on to create a flame within them, causing them to burst into flames.

Audra let go of the man and backed away. She then smiled and gave me a pat on the back that almost knocked the wind out of me. "See! It's fun! 'Bout time you joined in on it!"

I laughed, genuinely laughed. It seems almost like a dream.

"Cherish this happiness while you still can. It won't last long." I shoved that thought aside and smiled.

I looked down slightly as I smiled, "Yeah, you're right. As much as I hate to admit it... That was pretty fun." Audra smiled back.

Ethan also pat me on the back with superhuman strength."Welcome to the club, dude."


End file.
